A culture of discontent

It seems like lately I have been interacting with a lot of discontented people.

And...to be candid...there is a lot out there to be discontented about.

Living in the worst economic times since the Great Depression would discourage anyone, especially those who have experienced the loss of their jobs or homes. My heart and my compassion goes out to them.

The negativity and bad news that we all receive on a daily basis is relentless.

There is much to be discontented about.

That can apply, and many times especially applies, to God's people.

It's tough to remain positive in a negative culture. It's tough to remain content in a discontented culture.

Discontentment and her children - ingratitude, complaining, and grumbling - are serous temptations for us in the Kingdom of God.

Oh, we might not directly let it come out of our mouths, but it does come, in all kinds of subtle ways.

Do any of these statements reflect you?

"I regularly wish I had a different job."

"I possess a bad attitude when I'm at work."

"I am consistently disappointed in my relationships, whether they are with my spouse, my parents, my friends, my kids, or my church."

"People don't meet my emotional needs."

"My church doesn't meet my needs."

"I'm pretty resentful about that."

"I deal with disappointments and discontent in my life by doing one of the following:

- watching a lot of TV
- going shopping more than is healthy
- viewing pornography on the Internet
-drinking alcohol and doing drugs."

"I am losing a sense of hope about life and becoming more cynical as I grow older."

"I get really ticked off at the good things and circumstances people around me seem to have and enjoy."

Do any of these statements fit your life?

Author John Cheever writes that the main emotion that the average American feels is disappointment.

Ashton Kutcher, when asked what he missed about growing up and living in the Midwest (Iowa) said, "I miss being around people that don't complain. I'm in the drama business, and there are a lot of dramatic people that seem to be not very happy with where they are."

I'm not really wanting to give you pat answers or cliches at this point.

But maybe, just maybe, the answer to our discontentment is not finding solutions or answers or having our "if only's" met - but God himself.

Psalm 37:4 says: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

The Psalmist doesn't say the Lord will give you whatever you want. He says he will create in your heart desires that are appropriate. When you delight yourself in God, you're going to discover that the things you use to long aren't a distraction anymore.

In his book The Pressure's Off, psychologist Larry Crabb uses a story from his childhood to illustrate our need to delight in God through adversity:

"One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.

Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn't do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."

My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream.

"Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn't open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?"

"I can't unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"

I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.

"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.

That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.

Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn't open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn't heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?

God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn't walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn't budge. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.

I don't always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!"

Larry Crabb writes, "Dear friend, the choice is ours. Either we can keep asking him to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and represent him well in this difficult world."

Good stuff for a Wednesday.