Roadblock: Negative Discontent

Everyone knows what it's like not to be where you want to be. Maybe your job isn't your dream job. Or perhaps the number on the scale isn't as low as you'd like it to be. Or maybe you don't have the funds for that special something you've been dying to do for years. Many people would argue that discontent is wanting what you don't have. I would say there's two different forms of discontent, a negative form and a positive form. I'm going to write about one today and the other later this week. The first is when you focus on your desire for what you don't have. For instance, say you'd rather have a different job and all you think about all the time is how awful your current job is and how much better a different job would be. That would be a picture of negative discontent. But say you want a different job and instead of complaining and focusing on how bad you have it, you allow that desire to fuel your actions and you start taking steps towards getting a better job (job searching, further training, etc.). That is what I would call "positive discontent." Today, I want to honestly share about the affects Negative Discontent have had in my life lately as a challenge to all of us as we find ourselves in a place we didn't plan to be.

Over the months since I graduated college, I have been overwhelmed by the negative discontent I've allowed to take root in my heart. I have so often focused on what I want that I don't have: A "significant other," a great job, lots of money, a license, a car and the list could go on and on and on. Where my focus is really does affect my life. It has made me angry - at myself and others. It's been the motivation for my personal Pity Parties (sorry you weren't invited - you were probably getting married or buying nice stuff). Negative discontent has done its best to make me a selfish, self-centered, self-serving human being. 

And that's what this kind of discontent does. You begin to think of no one else but Number One and how best to take care of that person. Or maybe you begin to think of no one else but Number One and how much of failure they are. It's because they didn't do this and this and this that they aren't where you want them to be. Or you think of Number One and how much they aren't like all the rest when they really should be. They should look like Them, dress like Them, please Them. And yet, Number One doesn't. Number One just sits there and doesn't do anything but grumble and complain about how life isn't what it should be. This is how I have felt a lot, especially over the last two months. I convinced myself that everyone around me is happier than I am and they have it better off and I began to focus on what I must have done to deserve where I am. 

How do you prevent this discontent? Or if you wake up one day and realize it's taken control of your life, how do you break free? The answer to both of these is simply stated, yet oh so difficult to put into action: Submitting to the control of the Holy Spirit.

First, let's lay some ground rules about submission, because I know people tend to hate that word. Really, it's not a bad thing. To submit is to willingly place yourself under the authority of another. What we're going to talk about today is choosing to walk the way God directs us through His Word and handling life situations by looking for His desire. That's what I mean when I talk about submission.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about how this can prevent discontent. If we choose to place our lives under the control of the Holy Spirit, we will soon realize that where we are might just be where God wants us at this time in our lives. Remember Jeremiah 29:11? God promises that He has a plan for His people, and where we are may be part of that plan. Maybe He has things to teach us that we wouldn't learn if we had everything we wanted. Recognizing this fact is the most effective prevention of discontent. 

But we don't always catch the discontent when it first begins. Often, it's not until life outside of myself is affected that I notice the dung heap that is Discontent. It begins to permeate everything you say and do, how you treat others, how you spend your time, what you focus on. I just tend to ignore the inner turmoil until it's called out by something or someone outside of myself; then I begin to pay attention. But it's always so hard to come back from that point because you've gotten used to all those emotions and thoughts and desires. How do you turn back from that? By choosing contentment. "Fake it til you feel it" is something my mom likes to say and I find that it's very applicable to this situation. You start telling yourself - and I often tell God, too, even though He knows it's not completely true - that you like where you are, what you do and what you have. You tell yourself you don't need anything else. This is making the choice to be content. Stick it out and you will start to feel it. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. But those emotions will come when you suddenly see that you really don't need anything but what you have and even most of what you have is just a blessing God has seen fit to give you. Then, you realize that God's got a plan and He can use where you are; He wants to use where you are.

Negative Discontent is often a major roadblock in the Journey of Life. How do we handle it? Do we take the right turns to avoid it so as to continue on the path God's laid for us? Or do we just sit there, blaring our horn to let everyone know we don't like where we are? Or do we accept that we have all we need, let off the horn and turn around? How will we - how will you - react to Discontent today?