Can I Really Live With A Pay Cut?

A big pay cut prompts this writer to consider what it takes to be like Paul—to learn contentment in life.

Eliza Tan

After 15 years, I left my job in the corporate world to join a non-profit organisation. Along with many adjustments in workplace culture, pace, and goals, I took a 50-percent pay cut.

To be honest, I have told my friends, “I miss the money, sometimes.”

I miss the carefreeness of frequent haircuts with my favourite stylist in a salon. I miss having the freedom to book a private hire car ride at will. I miss possessing the means to indulge in yearly overseas holidays (though I do not have wanderlust).

Such thinking hinted at an insidious dissatisfaction, I realised. Searching the Scriptures, I found that the apostle Paul said he had to learn contentment through circumstances I could not imagine enduring (Philippians 4:11–12).

If contentment did not come naturally even to someone like Paul, how could I ever learn contentment?

Learning Contentment with Paul

The Oxford Dictionary defines learning as gaining knowledge or skill by studying, from experience, or from being taught. And Paul learned contentment from the most challenging experiences.

He endured shipwreck, beating, whipping, stoning, hunger, betrayal, and cold sleepless nights (2 Corinthians 11:22–27). He was likely stuck in a Roman prison when he wrote his letter to the Philippian church. The apostle had every reason to be discontent.

What gave him contentment, however, was not life’s circumstances but his commitment to the Lord. The secret to how he learnt contentment was finding it

“through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

To life’s difficulties, he responded, “To live is Christ.” In the jaws of death, he proclaimed: “To die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul’s communion with God through Christ’s presence in him overshadowed any loss he knew.

His focus on proclaiming Christ and presenting everyone fully mature in Jesus gave him the impetus to keep going amid difficulties (Colossians 1:28).

Paul’s single-mindedness reminds me of a line repeated over and again by the Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl in his memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

For me, the pertinent question is: Can I be satisfied with the “why” God has given me?

All things considered, I have a more meaningful job now. I find fulfilment in the work I do, far more than I ever did at my previous position. I have better work-life balance. My work at the non-profit has brought me more intangible gain than loss.

Moreover, compared to Paul, my pay cut was not a matter of life and death.

Finding my sufficiency in Christ every day can be learnt. With Paul, I’ve had to learn contentment deliberately—by taking time and effort to meditate on God’s provision (Psalm 145:16) and works (Psalm 143:5). He has given me a “why” I can be content with.

Can Enough Be Enough?

Someone else who can teach us about contentment is Agur, whose godly insights on life are recorded in Proverbs 30. “Give me neither poverty nor riches,” he said, “but give me only my daily bread” (Proverbs 30:8).

Agur acknowledged God as his provider and asked for “just enough” to satisfy his daily needs. He didn’t ask for overflowing prosperity, because it could make him proud, causing him to abandon God (Proverbs 30:9).

With great self-awareness, Agur also asked God to keep him from dishonouring His name by turning to thievery. Agur’s prayer reveals a heart that pursues God and seeks contentment from Him alone.

We too can be like Agur and know God to be the sole provider of all we have. We can pursue God with financial habits that honour Him and live in contentment, accepting with gratitude the daily (just enough) bread He provides.

My issue is that I don’t just want “bread”; I’d like some extras—cheese, wine, a spread of meat—the better things in life. While these are good gifts from God, “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17), I’ve needed to learn not to let lifestyle inflation creep in, such that the nice-to-haves become must-haves.

Writer G. K. Chesterton suggests an antidote:

So, when I ask, “Do I have enough?”, I find myself answering, “Yes, I do.” I believe many of us can answer the same.

Battling the Scourge of Envy

In a world obsessed with stuff that will ultimately leave us empty, here is good news: real contentment can be found in the simplest of things.

Yet, it isn’t just material things that can stir up discontentment in our hearts. Often, we compare ourselves with others in all sorts of ways, casting the gloomy shadow of envy over our lives.

“Whenever a friend succeeds,” author Gore Vidal once said, “a little something in me dies.”

Vidal’s words are sad. They describe a life lived in envy, which leaves little room for joy. But don’t we all feel this way at times?

Every person who longs to be married knows that sinking feeling when yet another friend becomes engaged.

Every childless couple feels that stab of grief when yet another pregnancy is announced.

Every patient who has prayed for healing knows the confusion of hearing yet another testimony of someone being healed.

“Why them and not me, God?” we whisper, as we put on smiles and hide our sadness.

Envy is insidious like “bone cancer” (Proverbs 14:30 NLT), eating us up from the inside. It’s listed among the life-destroying “acts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19–21).

We battle envy by heeding Paul’s exhortation to rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15), which comes soon after his call to let God’s word transform our minds. When we “do not conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2), we become able to honour others above ourselves (Romans 12:10).

I want to be able to say, Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me lives, and let my empty spaces be filled with Jesus.

Jesus tells us,

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

These words apply to all seasons of life—whether we have little or plenty, experience a pay cut or an increment. And should God bless us with more, may we enjoy His blessings and use them for His glory.

Although Eliza Tan eats to live rather than lives to eat, she still enjoys her food and wholeheartedly agrees with Ecclesiastes 3:13, "That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God."