IS IT OKAY to not like where I am?

I had the pleasure the other day of talking with a friend over coffee, and he started sharing with me about his desire to move into something different than what he is doing.

And he wondered if wanting to switch was selfish.

Is it selfish to no longer desire to do something and long for something else, especially if the thing that you're currently doing is good? Even if the thing you're doing is something you're good at- something that once brought you a lot of joy and challenged you? Something where you did, at one time, reap a lot of joy from adding value to that job?

A small wondering seeps into my heart after I acknowledge my discontentment.

Is it bad to want more?

When I'm talking to people about being unhappy with where I am, sometimes I automatically just start feeling guilty- like I should actually just be happy with I am. I tell myself, Maybe I should just get over it. Maybe this will pass. But why am I so angry? So discontent? So unable to just get over this?

So I take all those questions to God. Because He knows exactly when I need to stay and when I need to leave.

You know what He told me when I felt extreme discontent (and actually anger because of that discontent) earlier this year?

He said,

"I put that in you."

What? God- you know, the God of love and goodness and peace and hope- would actually allow anger to reside in me? Discontentment? Brooding desire?

Oh, yes.

He knows what it is to be discontent. To have a discontent rise up in him because

things are not as they should be.

And He's not just going to pass it by. He can't. It eats at Him.

Just like it eats at me every day.

How do I know this about Jesus?

Because I know that He knows what things are made to do. And when they're not functioning in that. And that makes Him mad.

When something isn't operating the way that God intended it to, He's not a fan.

And we don't have to be either.

I've seen Jesus get angry.

He was sitting in the temple. John 2.

" 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords... "

Let's stop there.

So He made a whip out of cords.

I'd imagine that's not a 30 second process. Jesus thought about this a bit. Long enough to make a whip out of cords.

Okay we can go ahead.

"...and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Woah. That's a consuming zeal, for sure.

Anger wasn't the sin.

The sin was that something that God designed to bring Himself glory

was being used in a way that did not bring Him glory.

And so a righteous zeal broke out in the heart of Jesus.

Because things were not as they should be.

Listen to this:

"22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8:22)

Okay, so even creation has this groaning that we feel. Why?

" 19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21thath the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." (Romans 8:19-21).

What is all of creation waiting for? What does it groan for with longing and expectation?

The same thing we are.

John Eldredge explains this beautifully in his book, Desire. Quoting Pascal, actually, he says:

"...all our miseries prove out greatness: 'They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch.'"

We groan, and creation groans, because this is not how it should be. And we know it. And so the anger rises up in us. Why?

Because we were made for something different.

"19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21thath the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." (Romans 8:19-21)

What's being revealed? What's being restored? What was lost? What is in deep bondage? Why do we feel this groaning?

"14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." (Romans 8:14-17)

Look at the words He uses:

Heirs.

Co-heirs with Christ (Umm, I'm pretty sure Jesus sits next to the throne of God right about now... we're co-heirs with THAT. WHAT?!)

Children. (Children get everything their parents give them. We'll receive and inherit.)

We were made to be heirs. We groan because in the core of who we are, we know that we are ready for more. Because we have the Spirit of God in us, we'll never stop "groaning inwardly" until the glory of God is revealed in us- until all that was stolen from us in Eden is redeemed.

In Eden, we reflected God's image exactly how He intended. And so now we wait "for the children of God to be revealed" for who they really are. For us to get the glory He gave us back.

"17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we also may share in his glory."

Oh, one day we'll share in the glory again. And right now, the Spirit is in us to remind us of who we really are, even though we're stuck in the middle of the crossfire. We were, indeed, made for more than what we're doing on this earth right now. We were made for everything to be set right again. We were made for that day.

And so, until that day, we'll feel it.

My desire won't end until then. It won't. But here's something beautiful that keeps me moving forward. Jesus says these words as He's talking to God:

" 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." (John 17:4-5)

The glory He had before the world began.

When Jesus became a human and came to be with us, oh, He felt it. He felt the groaning, too. He felt the glory that was lost as a result of living in the middle of this world.

"4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do."

So all of my groaning comes back to this:

What is the work He has given me to do here?

There are a lot of good things that I could possibly be doing, but is what I'm doing right now the work that God gave me to do?

Let's be bold enough to ask Him.

Sometimes our desire- our groaning- is a symptom of the fact that we're still waiting for "the glory [we] had before the world began." And so now, how do we bring a bit of that glory here in the mean time?

We finish the work He gave us to do.

And it starts with being bold enough to actually listen to the groaning that's inside of us longing for more. And then doing what He says.

Until it's all restored.

#creation #work #content #discontent #angry #jesusclearsthetemple #waiting