Blessing the Discontent

There is an uncomfortable line of thought within the Christian worldview, particularly for those who would choose a religion for the favorable qualities it offers.  That is, the life of a believer is not one which is void of disappointment.  The believer does not cease to live with discontent because he lives with Christ.  Though the sources of our disappointment will vary, it can play an important role in the journey of a believer.  In fact, the experiences of the earliest followers show that God makes good use of disappointment in the lives of those God loves.

In the Old Testament, God speaks of the disappointment in the hearts of the people of Israel as a signpost to truth.  When we have wandered away from our first love, when we have settled for something less than God’s promises, disappointment can show us the way back home.  God identified the dissatisfaction among the people of ancient Israel as an indicator that all things apart from his presence will always fall short of filling their hearts.  The second chapter of Jeremiah is filled with the imagery of inevitable disappointment for those who seek to supplement the love of God with other pursuits:

“Now why go to Egypt
to drink water from the Shihor?
And why go to Assyria
to drink water from the River?

Why do you go about so much,
changing your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt
as you were by Assyria.

You will also leave that place
with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
you will not be helped by them” (Jeremiah 2:18, 36-37).

When we face disappointment we are faced with a choice.  It can lead us further into futile pursuits for fulfillment or it can be the signpost that causes us to turn around and be welcomed back into the arms of the Father.  If we will allow Him, this is one way God can use disappointment in lives of believers.

But this type of disappointment is far different from what we might call holy discontent, the unsatisfied hunger that reminds us we have indeed been ushered in to a great banquet, but the feast has not fully been served.  In the hands of God, this can be an equally powerful signpost.

Saint Augustine is often quoted for his words about restlessness and dissatisfaction.  On the first page of his Confessions, Augustine summarizes the story of his life in a single confession to God: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”   So often this line is quoted as the quality that distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, the rested from the restless.  But I don’t think this is what Augustine intended, nor do I think it is a helpful place to draw the line.  Those who confess Christ as Lord do not cease to confess disappointment.  Moreover, one cannot read Augustine’s Confessions without realizing that he saw himself as a restless soul!  He saw all of us this way, and for good reason.  As believers, we still struggle with sin and disappointment.  We are still restless, still longing, still hungry, and at times discontent.  Our thirst is partially satisfied now because we are partially sanctified.  We have, in the Spirit, a taste of what is to come.  But the table of God is not fully here yet, and at times we are filled with discontent at the thought of it.   With all of creation, I am still groaning for restoration, reconciliation, redemption—to sit at the table that has been prepared for me and recline with the one who’s prepared it.

I believe the rest that Augustine is talking about is eschatological rest—and we are not there yet.  Our way there is full of longing, filled with discontent that the world is not as it will be, marked by the difficulty of waiting, and the hunger for more than we now taste and see.  But how beautiful this longing is!  For our disappointment is a testimony to the promise that we will rest in God, and such a signpost is an unlikely blessing in the midst of our need.   I believe this is why Jesus declares throughout the beatitudes that those on the verge of disappointment, those in the grasp of pangs for something more—these are the blessed among us.   Blessed are the poor in spirit.   Blessed are those who mourn, and those who are meek.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Such hunger is a declaration that we are indeed on our way to a great banquet and God is truly reconciling all things so that we—and our enemies—have a place at the table.  Our restlessness can thus be deeply devotional, our discontent a constant confession that we anticipate nothing less than redemption and restoration, a place at the great table of God.   Blessed indeed are the hungry.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

What Is This Power?

. . . And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

Ephesians 1:19-20

The resurrection of Christ, and our salvation, was brought about by nothing less than divine power. What will we say of those who think that conversion is accomplished by the free will of man and is due to his own kindly disposition? When we begin to see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners turning to Christ by their own endeavors. It is not the word preached, nor the word read in itself; all quickening power proceeds from the Holy Spirit.

This power was irresistible. All the soldiers and the high priests could not keep the body of Christ in the tomb; death itself could not hold Jesus in its grip: Just as irresistible is the power displayed in the believer when he is raised to newness of life. No sin, no corruption, no devils in hell nor sinners on earth can resist the hand of God’s grace when it intends to convert a man. If God omnipotently says, “You shall,” man will not say, “I shall not.” Notice that the power that raised Christ from the dead was glorious. It reflected honor upon God and caused dismay in the hosts of evil. So there is great glory to God in the conversion of every sinner.

It was everlasting power. “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”¹ So we, being raised from the dead, do not go back to our dead works or to our old corruptions, but we live to God. “Because I live, you also will live.”² “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”³ “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”⁴ Finally, in the text note the union of the new life to Jesus. The same power that raised the Head works life in the members. What a blessing to be quickened together with Christ!

¹Romans 6:9 ²John 14:19 ³Colossians 3:3 ⁴Romans 6:4