We all had dreams somewhere along the way…

Do you remember your dream of what you wanted to be when you were younger?

I remember mine.

Being a child of the sixties, I had a passion for music.  I played trumpet in the band, getting to first chair eventually in my high school trumpet section.  But that was not the dream.  The dream was having long hair, singing and playing the guitar on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans.   Of course, since I was an “all-American” boy, my dream audience was filled with a hefty majority of beautiful females.

That was it: I wanted to be a rock and roll star.

It did not go any further than that.  Beyond being adored, I had no plan.

And then I read about Bono [of U2 fame] in Chapter 6 of Holy Discontent and I realize what a person can do with their rock stardom.  Pastor Hybels is using Bono to try to illustrate what a person can do about their holy discontent.   He says we need to feed it, fight for it and follow it.

That is exactly what Bono did with his fight against African famine.

I have another blog I contribute to from time to time.  It is called shinelight.info.  I use it to reach out to victims of trauma [accident trauma, disease trauma, crime trauma or even PTSD].   My trauma was from an accident and as I walk the road to recovery, it is therapeutic for me to share my thoughts [good and bad] about how I feel. 

God tells us to shine our light.  Matthew 5:16 states “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  I try to shine a light through my hard times so maybe I can help someone else.

I have not turned out to be a fantastic guitar player.   I own two guitars and they sit in an upstairs room, untouched for the most part.  I sing bass in my church choir and so far, I have not had too many accolades tossed my way about that.  Seems I may have truly missed my opportunity to be a rock star. 

What I have enjoyed is writing.

I love taking ideas about faith and trauma recovery and putting them out on the web for anyone to read.   I don’t care if I have five readers or five hundred.   The process is good for my mind, good for my heart and as a fellow Christian blogger told me recently, “God gave me the ability and I am doing my part; I am putting it out there.”

Feed your holy discontent and fight for your holy discontent.

When things get tough, it is important to not give up.  It is important to do your work and do it to the best of your ability.   Hybels says don’t just go through the motions.  He says it like this: don’t be a 25 watt bulb or a 75 watt bulb, be a 1,000 watt bulb!  “If you’re called at this stage of the game to be a leader, then be a thousand watt leader!  If you’re called to sing, then be a thousand watt singer!  Fill in the blank with whatever it may be for you—a pilot, an executive, a mom, a dad, a prayer warrior.  I dare you to approach your holy discontent with an upfront commitment of being a ‘thousand-watt’ at whatever you do.”

And lastly follow it.

Too often we get locked into life too quickly.  We get set in our ways.  We develop habits.  We have a vision and that is it; it never changes.   We can’t adapt our vision when circumstances change.

But in life, circumstances do change.

Humor me as I tell you when I feel the tug of the Holy Spirit the most.   It is not when I am working with people.   It is when I am working in my yard at home.  I know this is going to sound strange but I pray a lot when I do yard work.   First of all, I am thankful to be able to do it.   At times it overwhelms me [I ain’t no “spring chicken”] but all the time I ask Divine guidance as to what I need to be doing, how I need to be doing it and how I need to accomplish my tasks.  The fun part is that I believe God leads me to where I need to be, He helps me know what I need to do and He give me strength to accomplish my tasks.  My wife accuses me of having attention deficit disorder as I flit from one task to another but I am just morphing from one role to another as I feel a need becomes present.

With Holy Discontent, this is necessary because often in life, we don’t wind up doing what we think we will do once we start tackling a job.  But to have a maximum impact on our world we need to be able to adapt to the place where the greatest need exists.

This is God expanding us and stretching us.  “[He wants you to] participate in whatever ‘new thing’ He wants to do through you…follow your holy discontent wherever it takes you, whenever it takes you so that our world…can benefit from your wattage in this generation.”