Friday, January 15, 2010

Holy(?) Discontent

Have you ever been stuck in a place that you couldn't quite put a name to, a place of discontent? of discouragement? of unsettled restlessness?
I've been in that place - I am in that place. I'm not happy in this place so I dwell on it, trying to put my finger on the why's, the how''s, and the when's of it - as in, when am I going to get out of this? There is nothing worse, for me, than to be in a discontented state of mind with no real sense of how I got here. It drives me insane - it usually happens after a time of great joy and anticipation and then BAM! I'm in a state of unrest. I could blame it on Satan - he does seem to like to pick on joy-filled people - but that seems wrong to me. At some point in my joy-filled, hopeful period, I left some room for the opposite of that. Does that mean my joy was incomplete? My hope, a false hope? Or is there something else going on in my mind, in my makeup? As a Christian, you hear about the mountain tops and the valleys in our walk, there are scriptures that recount the same thing, so it's common. but I can't let it stop at that. Just because it's common doesn't mean I get to wallow in it or that I get to just "ride it out".I have to figure out why it happens so that perhaps the next time, I can forego this place of discontent.
In analyzing my thought-life, I've come to an unsettling conclusion. In my joy-filled, hopeful state, I maintain expectations - expectations that people will rise up to where they should be, and a second expectation that doesn't sit well with me: that God will act in the ways that I think He will. For those of you that know me, the first expectation doesn't surprise you - nor does how I get discouraged when that expectation goes unmet. It's a given- people will sometimes rise up and exceed all expectations and sometimes they fail and they fail Big. I can live with that, I do live with that. I've failed my own expectations for myself enough times that I have a pretty good understanding of it. I may not like it - but I have empathy for it.
The second expectation is what unsettles me. I know, in my head, that God works in His own ways, in His own time and, most of the time, it is vastly different than how you, or I, could even imagine. I get that, I've experienced that. I've been surprised and awed every time He does what He does. So why? Why do I still feel this way? To have unresolved expectations when it comes to God is kind of silly, isn't it? When I know that He will do what He will do, in His time and in ways that make me worship Him and praise His name. Why do I still feel let down when my hope for how He'll do things gets dashed?
I don't have the answer....surprised?
I may not have the answers, but I do have a desire. A desire that I not miss what God is doing while I wallow in my unmet expectations of how He'll do it. My desire is that I open my eyes and my heart to see what God is doing now, today - and not get so caught up in why He's not doing what I thought He would.

My prayer is that I live in a constant state of eager anticipation of the unknowable ways of GOD and be content and full of the joy that only He can bring. The only way I can see to do that is to remember: Remember what He's done before. Remember the awe I felt in seeing His work. Remember, simply, that He is.

4 comments:

  1. Praising God that you are Taking every thought captive and placing it before the one who will work it out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remembering that He can"do more than we ask or imagine" is usually what helps me to hang on to the joy in the difficult or painful circumstances. Thank you for a thought provoking post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The typical husband response...."is something wrong?"...."did I do something wrong?"....
    I love my wife!
    Joe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post, thanks for sharing!
    Lynn

    ReplyDelete