We all do it. We
serve our discontent. To some degree, it
is what drives us to get an education, a job, start a family, move to the
burbs, encourage our kids into sports or band or dance or student council. It is what prompts us to go to church, save
for vacation, and to upgrade our cars, our houses, and our facial features
through discrete procedures.
Discontent is not the only motive for these things. For some, it may not even be primary. But it's always there. It's always a part of what we pursue. That's because God has wired it into us. We are supposed to feel discontent when
things are not as they should be. That
is our God-given sense of right and wrong or justice rising to the surface.
The problem for most of us, even those of us who follow
Jesus, is the outlet we seek for this discontent. This God-breathed sense of justice that
resides in us and is always rising to the surface should lead us to serve the
poor and oppressed and under-resourced.
It should lead us to learn how to share our faith with your friends who
are far from God, and then share it. It
should move us to invest our time, money and energy on the stuff that carries
eternal value.
But we retreat to the
burbs, isolate ourselves, and invest our time and resources on a world and way
of life that allows us to pretend the promised kingdom has already come. We feed ourselves on spiritual fast
food. It's cheap and easy and does not
feed our souls with what they need to thrive.
When are we going to become discontent with that?
Well, no time for that, right? Our calendars are kind of booked up with, and
our resources already committed to...oh, say....almost anything else. We say we know better. But we don't do better. So do we really know better? Can you really know what you have never
experienced?
Okay, feeling guilty enough?
Guilt is not my intent, by the way.
I have a friend, and we both know how guilt has been abused by the
church to get people to do stuff that serves the church or church leadership,
especially financially. We joke that
every time our backs hurt, or our cars break down, or we are mentally tired, or
we catch a cold, the cause must be guilt.
"Man, I've been sneezing all day and nothing I take
makes it stop. Must be guilt!"
So I am not posting this to raise anyone's sense of
guilt. That is totally useless. I am, however, trying to tap into that
natural sense of discontent that we all have that grips us with the reality
that this world is not as it should be, and then suggest that feeding that discontent by giving ourselves to the messy work of the Kingdom is the way of Jesus, and that retreat and
isolation into a world where we can pretend it's not our responsibility is not the way of Jesus. Guilt, no! Discontent, yes!
May we continue to be aware of our own sense of
discontent. May we begin to satisfy the
hunger it creates with the investment of time, energy and resources into what
build the Kingdom of God. May we not be overwhelmed
by the task and retreat, but may we find ways to retask, reboot, reprioritize,
and recommit ourselves to the ongoing work of Christ who rested, but never
retreated from the work of bringing life into the lives of those who were
otherwise without hope. And may the
feeding of your discontent bring you a kind of joy you never knew was possible,
and fill you with a hope that only those who join you will ever know.
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