They are introduced all over the world as the greatest band in the world ... The Rolling Stones. WHATEVER (insert highly opinionated comments here)! Their signature song, which continues to list in everybody's top 5 list of Greatest Rock Songs of All Time, expresses a disturbing sentiment which Dr. Fred preached about in yesterday's worship experience. And I have been reeling from the truth of the Word ever since. It is Silicon Valley's sin of choice -- discontentment. Man, this one is huge, nasty, and ugly. And we see it all around us every single stinkin' day. There is never enough time, money, education, and accumulation of stuff. The music is never good enough, the car is never running well enough, the sex is never good enough, the vacation time is never long enough, blah blah blah. We hear these kinds of comments all the time from people who are never EVER gonna be satisfied. So what is the end result of the sin of discontentment? Dr. Fred reminded us that discontentment often leads us down the path of experimentation with yucky stuff to try and satisfy our attitudes of entitlement. Since I don't have enough money, let me steal some. Since my husband won't give me what I need intimately, let me have an affair. Since ____________, let me ____________. And before we know it, we are deep into the pit of sin. Man, it is time for us to wake up!
The slow, insidious nature of culture often influences the Church of Jesus Christ with more power and destruction than any disease or epidemic. The desire of Jesus would be for the Church to influence culture (but we'll save that for another post). I for one am on a quest to reexamine the motives of why I do what I do. Do I have a legimate, holy desire to strive for excellence and build the Kingdom, OR am I just so datgum hard to please that I need more stuff to feel happy? Thin line? Oh you better believe it. No ministry knows this better than my Technical Arts Ministry Team. We talk about this kind of thing all the time. We could spend ever ministry waking moment discussing all of the new toys that we could buy. And with increased technology as it is, we could replace equipment with new stuff just about every 6 months. But the wise balance that Dave Frederickson and David McNeely bring to this ministry team is that they recognize the difference between needs and wants. So they are striving for a ministry which seeks contentment. And I praise God for this.
So Dr. Fred and I talked very briefly about the need to review from time to time. Sometimes I feel discontent in ministry because I forget what God has already accomplished through me. The next time you are experiencing discontentment in your ministry, sit down with a ministry accountability partner and do some review. Perhaps you will find that God is not through with you yet, and things are not nearly as grim as you thought. The next time you are feeling discontentment in your life, sit down with another Christian and have a time of accountability and review. And perhaps afterwards, drop a comment here and let us know how things went.
