A state of Positive Discontent

     Sometimes when people ask me where I live, I tell them that I live in "Confusion."  More appropriately I live in a state of positive discontent.  I first coined the phrase "positive discontent" about 15 years ago...maybe longer.  It was when I recognized just how attached to the feeling of not being content I was.  Paul talks about his not being content with where he was and who he was.  I feel the same way.  I realize that my life, like Paul's, has been an incredible journey of ups and downs.  Though I never was stoned (as he was), many things have taken place in my life where I have been either beat up or felt beat up.  My life has always been one where I've wanted to know more.  Simple answers are okay some of the time but most certainly not all the time.  Wondering since I was a young boy who I was has been a quest that has taken me into many situations and places.  Still I wonder who I am.  I'm 62 and most people would say that I should be content with who I am.  Why should I be?  God's not content with who I am.  God wants a state of positive discontent to be present in all of our lives.  Simply put, being in a state of positive discontent means you are aware of where you have come from, aware of who you are today, and yearning for what will bring the next change up to a better place in our lives.
     We have all kinds of societal devices meant to keep us content with the here and now.  We're taught to not rock the boat.  In my young adulthood I was taught that you graduate high school, get a good job, work for your life and retire.  Oh, and have 2.5 children and at least one pet.  We were told that should be good enough.  Not for me.  Over my lifetime I've had 18 different vocations, been in several different relationships, 7 children, 5 grandchildren and many different pets to include some evil goldfish (another story).  If our lives were clocked on a speedometer I would be doing 120 most of my life.  Society doesn't operate that way.  Society tells us to be content with what we have.  Society tries to keep us in our "class" of people.  Society doesn't have a clue about being in a state of positive discontent.  It's not enough to know that the sky is blue because God made it that way.  It's not enough to say, "people are just like that."  It's should not be enough of anything for those who dream, imagine and desire the return of Jesus.  Without a vision the people perish.  I don't know who said that off hand.  Forgive me.  I'm that guy who wonders where God came from, what's beyond the edge of the universe, why caterpillars have poky spines all over them. 
     It would be nice to be content and when I get to heaven I will be.  I'm not content that people should perish because they haven't been asked to have Jesus as their Savior.  I'm not content to see people hungry and unfed while I have lots.  I'm not content to say pat answers when the questions call for more.  I'm not content to stand by and be silent when it's an agreement with evil.  I'm not content in any part of my life.  Are you?  Does contentment mean you're apathetic to what is going on around you?  If you aren't part of the solution, are you part of the problem?  Am I?  Yes!  I'm not content to let nature take it's course because that thinking overflows to every area of my life and your life.  No, I'm not okay with mediocrity.  No, I'm not okay with placated answers.  No, I'm not okay with those who can do something but won't.  Neither is Jesus.  He said, "Even as you do it to the least of these you do it to me."  Or don't.  Your choice.  My choice.  Today I'll live in my state of positive discontent in spite of the world and for Jesus.