St. John Studies

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it” [Genesis 2:15].

It all began in the Garden…work.

“Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God” [Ecclesiastes 2:24].

“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” [2 Thessalonians 3:10].

We need to do it, we should do it…God expects us to do it.

However, for some people, work is less than inspiring.  In his book Holy Discontent, Pastor Bill Hybels writes about holy discontent in the workplace.

Why do you do the work that you do?

Some do it because they have to, to make money to live.  Some do it because they make a lot of money and they want a lot of things that money will buy.  They get up, go to work, tough out the day, come home, sleep, get up, go to work, etc.   You get the picture.   There is little purpose other than making money.  There is no passion.  Nothing else really motivates them to go to work, much less do a good job at work.

Hybels applies his premise that some people work to correct “what they cannot stand” to the work place.

There may be something to that.

Let me get a bit personal.

Going to school was something I liked.  Early in my life, I liked books, I liked reading and thanks to a wonderful 7^th grade teacher who introduced me to diagramming sentences [who does that anymore?] I developed a love of language and writing.

It was natural that I pursued English study in college.  I thought I would become an English teacher and I was an English teacher for several years but English teaching was not what drove me to teach for thirty-six years.  It certainly was not the money I earned.  What inspired me to teach for thirty-six years was the fact that I was painfully shy.

I had a collection of dreadful experiences in front of audiences, a piano recital when I forgot my piece, the serious campaign speech for junior class president that was met with laughter, the time I forgot my lines in the school play.   I can go on and on.   I had the notion that an audience was there to judge a speaker negatively, to pick the speaker apart.

To add to that, I was not gifted in interpersonal communication either.  I found it hard to carry on a conversation.   I would find myself in social situations with nothing to say but I had very sweaty armpits and perspiration on my forehead.  My wife knew I was shy.   Over the years she has joked that when we first met, I found it difficult to go to the concession stand at a sporting event to get popcorn.  I had to interact with people.  Problem is, it was not a joke.  I did everything I could to get out of going to get that popcorn.

The more I began to think about what I could not stand, the more I began to consider that I could not stand having “stage fright” or, to be more broad-based, “communication apprehension.”  The more I studied communication in graduate school, the more I realized I was not alone in this fear of speaking.  It was everywhere.  It was listed in many polls as mankind’s greatest fear; yes greater than heights, snakes, germs, etc.

I was so blessed.  I found myself with the opportunity to be a communication teacher.  For many years I had the honor of taking groups of twenty-five students through a journey from little confidence at the beginning of the semester to much greater confidence at the end.  I tried to instruct them about how to understand who they were speaking to and how their message could be written to work with their audience.  I tried to sell my students on the value of sharing their experiences with others, connecting with others and trusting others.   I wanted them to see the importance of relationships.

I was blessed because I loved what I was doing.

I was blessed because it sprang from something that I could not stand. 

I could not stand being nervous and insecure around other human beings.

I could not stand knowing that so many other people felt just like I did.  I wanted to do my part to eradicate communication apprehension.

I have a very good friend who has a tendency to look back on life.  She says things to me like “I don’t know why I did that” or “maybe that was a mistake.”

I spend very little time doing that.

At the end of my teaching career, I was still a very effective teacher.   I felt like I could have continued on longer in the classroom, but I did not want my teaching to be less than my best.  It was time to move on in life. 

Yesterday I found myself in a fast food restaurant and I got a special treat.   I ran across two former students who are wonderful people.   They were enjoyable in class and they went on to be responsible adults doing good work, one a lab technician and the other an EMT.   They are what I call good solid citizens.  They came up to me and we had a little conversation about the past, when they were in my communication class.  I was truly humbled as they said good things about me.

Yes God expects us to work; He wants us to work.  I don’t believe He wants us to just slug through the day at work.  Think about your life and try to figure out what you cannot stand.  I know it sounds like a strange way to approach your work-life but maybe it is not.

What you can’t stand may just motivate you to do your best work, and if that happens, I believe that God is pleased and an added dividend, you are a happy person.

God is probably pleased about that too…

Bill Hybels went to the promised land…

You may think I am implying that this pastor of Willow Creek Community Church has “passed on” as we say in the south; he has traveled to his just reward.  Of course this common reference comes from the promise that God made to Abraham and the Israelites: they were promised that they would be able to go to the “land of milk and honey.”

No.  When he talks of going to the “promised land” he is referring to touring the children’s ministry of Willow Creek Church.   This is his way of giving credit to all the wonderful volunteers at his church.

If you want to find a place to use your talents, there is no better place than your church.

Not everyone has that attitude…sadly.

I am going to comment on a couple of well-known clichés about church.  One is the 80/20 rule.   Believe it or not, this “rule” is based on a theory by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.

The 80/20 rule applies to church volunteerism because 20% of the church is active and 80% do very little except attend.  This attitude is the opposite of what Hybels discovers when he takes his “promised land” tour.   Granted Willow Creek is a large church, a “mega-church.”  In 2011 they reported an average Sunday attendance of nearly 24,000.   In anyone’s estimation that is big.

Hybels saw men, women and teens holding babies, rocking babies and peeking down on babies in cribs.  Walking down the hallway, he saw adults supervising toddlers in a special section of the church just for them.  Keep in mind that this is a big church with a lot of parents with children and volunteers who believe in making the kids part of their church.  Dozens of volunteers work there every Sunday.  He writes of more examples of volunteerism; “shade tree mechanics” who are working on a car to help a woman who needs some reliable transportation, board members who are stuffing Hope Packs to send to underprivileged people on the other side of the world, finance council leaders, prayer team coordinators, grounds keepers, greeters, elders…the list goes on and on of people who step up and do the work of the church every week, free of charge.

Maybe Hybels exaggerates.

I hope not.

There certainly is a lot of work to do in every church.   There is a volunteer role for every church member but sadly some don’t have that attitude.   “Let the staff do the work; they are paid to do it.”   “I did my part; it is time for younger ones to step up and now I get to rest.”  “The pastor only works on Sunday; they have all kinds of time to get things done.”  That last one is the most cruel.  Of course pastors don’t just work on Sunday.  Anyone who has spent time with a good pastor knows they are on the go every day.  I have friends who are children of pastors and they never experienced a full vacation because their pastor parent is called back from time off to take care of a church emergency.

Thom S. Rainer, in his book I Am A Church Member,  understands this attitude very well.  He writes, “We join our churches expecting others to serve us, to feed us and to care for us….God did not give us local churches to become country clubs where membership means we have privileges and perks….Many churches are weak because we have members who have turned the meaning of membership upside down.”

In short, they believe that 80 percent of the work should be done by 20 percent of the people.

I have a pastor who began her first sermon at my church by passing out a piece of jigsaw puzzle to everyone at our church.  Her point?  That everyone in our church has a role.  Together we all must fit together to solve the puzzle.  I Corinthians 12 says “Now you are the body of Christ and individual members in it.”   Some will be able to mow the yard, some will be able to teach, some will be able to visit people who are home-bound.  Others can chair the church council, sing in the choir, or serve as prayer warriors.  The point is that there is work for all of us to do.   Church needs you to be a functioning member.   If you are an eye in the body, that is wonderful.  If you are an ear, that is wonderful.  If you are a hand, that is wonderful.

Keep this is mind.

Together we are the body of Christ.

Let me close by quoting Pastor Hybels on volunteerism in his church: “There’s nothing more inspiring than a person who transforms something he just can’t stand into a kind of positive energy that advances restoration in this world.  This is what’s at work every time a person steps into a church with an ‘I’m here to serve attitude’”.

He writes so much about “holy discontent”, the idea that motivation comes to people who choose to do good in the world because there is something wrong in the world and they can’t stand to do nothing.  They want to make things better.

What a perfect place for positive energy…your church.

Chapter two in the book Holy Discontent is dedicated to “Popeye People”, you know those folks who reached the stage of frustration when they had to do something to correct a bad situation.  They acted to make things better. 

Hybels cites some “heavy hitters”, people we all know.   Martin Luther King gets several pages.  He also singles out Mother Teresa.  Not everyone knows Dr. Bob Pierce but his founding of World Vision has touched the lives of many people in need, primarily meeting the needs of people who are starving around the world.  Another “heavy hitter.”

These examples bring me to think about “popeye people” that I know.   I have known a few.  They have lived right here in my community.*

This woman began to take on large projects early in her life.   When she saw a need she tackled it.  Here are a couple of examples from her lifetime of work.  Thirty-five years ago, she felt there was a need to help people who had family members who were in the last stages of life, the terminally ill.  This is a confusing time and most of us are very ill-equipped to care for our loved ones.  Seeing a need, she reached out [she called it “getting brave”] and contacted a nationally known expert on death and dying and asked him to come to our community.   She got donors to fund his trip and fee and got an interested audience together for his message.  From her efforts, our community has a very active hospice movement.  Recently she put her efforts behind a half-way house for incarcerated women.  Again promoting, helping with funding and selling the need for this type of facility.  Today there is demonstrated evidence of the good this facility is doing.  It has recently moved to another location, a bigger building so more women can be served.  Her age is not slowing her down.  Where she sees a need, she is still tackling it.

I was in a Bible study/men’s group about twenty-five years ago with a man who was very concerned with certain pockets of poverty in our community.   He was very familiar with certain neighborhoods that were crime-ridden and wanted to do something about them.   I remember spending weekly sessions with him; we talked about a lot of things but he kept his focus on what needed to be done to make poor neighborhoods better.  One day he announced he would be moving to an apartment in the poorest neighborhood in town.  He did that.  He started walking around the neighborhood trying to get to know people.   He was well-known as a bike rider, going up and down the down-trodden streets waving to people.  Soon he got enough people to buy into the idea that a house needed to be occupied in the neighborhood that would bring individuals, couples, and families together, centers of faith where resources could be brought to underprivileged neighborhoods.  Today our community has six “Challenge Houses” where people can gather to get education, employment information and improve their life skills.  All from one man’s commitment to make poor neighborhoods better.

Last is a man who worked for God tirelessly.  He did not have the notoriety that the above two people have but I knew of his work because he was a close friend.   He never bragged about what he was doing; he just went about doing it.  He was excellent with his hands, by that I mean he could build anything or fix anything.  At church he was a tireless volunteer, heading up project after project to cut down on maintenance costs.  He volunteered in the community in so many capacities that I cannot even begin to list all his efforts.  I will mention my most meaningful contact with him, as a volunteer in the Emmaus Community.  He was such a humble man, very self-effacing.  He knew he had to speak at an Emmaus Walk and felt ill-prepared to do a good job.  When he was in his sixties, he joined a speech class full of twenty somethings where I tried to teach him the basics of speaking in public.   He toughed it out and make a wonderful speech on the Emmaus Walk.   I know because I was a pilgrim on that walk.   I had no idea that he was going to be one of my speakers.   He was constantly trying to get me to serve with him in a prison ministry.   I was so uncomfortable doing that so I kept coming up with lame excuses about why I could not go.  He never made me feel bad.  The invitation was open.  He is no longer with us but his tireless service lives on in the lives of those he touched. 

He, like the “getting brave” woman above and the bike-riding challenge house founder are sterling examples of people who saw a need and met it.   He was not as well-known as the other two but in my mind, that is probably the way he wanted it.   I remember talking to him about his service and he just would not take credit.   Naïve as I was, I could not understand why he deflected compliments.   He was not working for himself; he was working for God.

That is something that all “popeye people” have in common.  They don’t worry about the credit.  They know where their strength comes from to do what they do.  It doesn’t come from man.

“I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:13

*I prefer for these three people to be anonymous….

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength” [Philippians 4: 12-13].

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’”  [Hebrews 13:5].

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.   For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it”  I Timothy 6: 6-7.

There is a lot to say about contentment in the Bible.  In the book Holy Discontent, Bill Hybels seems to be trying to stir us all to action, maybe the opposite of contentment.   Contentment means happiness and satisfaction.  Some synonyms are gratified, fulfilled, pleasure, cheerfulness.

The big question is…is it ok to be content?

Jesus says be content with the money that you have, be content about your circumstances, be content when your basic needs are met (food, water and shelter).

What’s wrong with that?  What’s wrong with being happy from time to time?  We all know that none of us can stay happy all the time.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with contentment.

So what is Hybel’s beef?  Here it is: “lived out in isolation, it can be lethal.  If you’re not careful, you will become lulled into a state of satisfaction, safety, serenity and you’ll altogether neglect needs in the world that should elicit deep discontent when you see them going unmet.”

The key word is isolation.

Hybel’s gives us a list of serious unmet needs:  the plight of the poor, care for the sick and dying, prisoners who need to be visited, clothing for the naked, care for orphans, communication with the hurting, water for the thirsty, food to the hungry and community to the outcast.

These needs are real.

The contented person who does not look past his own situation [living in isolation] is likely not to even pay attention to these needs.   Hybels knows that these needs may be met one day but it won’t happen with magic.   It will happen with caring concern and hard work from others, hard work from Christians who are called to do such work.

Christian churches have inspirational leaders who encourage members to be involved in this kind of work.   Being a Methodist, I can turn to my church’s founder John Wesley who mirrored the “serve others sentiment” in his words “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

Be on guard against self-centeredness.  Be on guard against myopia.  Be on guard against self- satisfaction.

It certainly is not a sin to be happy but it may be a sin to turn a blind eye to a demonstrated need that you know you can meet.

This world is full of trouble.  There is injustice to go around for everyone.   People are struggling all over.

Remember God wants to restore his children to a right relationship.  Maybe you are the instrument of that restoration.

Be useful, take the skills the Lord has given you and produce some fruit.  Remember the fig tree that Jesus saw on his way to Jerusalem?  The fig tree was bearing no figs and Jesus cursed it.   The next morning the disciples commented on the fig tree, that it had withered.  It had produced no fruit so it was useless.  It could have produced fruit but it did not .

It was a waste.

Stop for a second and think about that situation for your life.   You have the skills, you don’t use them, you are selfishly content with your lot in life, you ignore the needs of others who really need your help.

Are we being useless?

Is our life a waste?

Maybe we need a little dose of Holy Discontent…

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.   I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.   Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” [John 13].

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” [1 Peter 4:10].

I am going to write from experience now.  Sometimes other people peeve me.

Generally, I value people.  You might even say I care deeply about people.

But there are certain people I encounter who bother me and I am ashamed to admit that.

Pastor Hybels in his book Holy Discontent writes of common denominators in people who operate with an energy that he says comes from their holy discontent.  As in the previous post, they believe in restoration and the main focus of restoration is people.  Hybels says “This should make perfect sense, since you can’t genuinely align yourself with God’s priorities and then traipse around destroying the crown of His creation, his people” [Hybels, 27].  God cares deeply about people and He is trying to restore a relationship with them.  As His servants, we could have a deep and abiding concern for the protection and development of all God’s people.   After all, we are here to be God hands and feet and sometimes we may even utter something that would benefit someone else’s relationship with God.

Back to the people that peeve me.

Humans are fallible.  One could even go so far as to say that they will let you down.  They behave badly.  They say things that are disappointing.  Their anger can be unleashed on you and your feelings will be hurt.  People can turn their back on you, showing very little compassion for your situation.   Some can be so self-centered that the whole world revolves around them.

This can lead to us finding fault in others.

What can we do about this other than gripe and complain about others.  That is not the holy discontent that Hybels is writing about.  That frustration will lead to a well-meaning Christian doing more harm than good.

He says we need to remember that all people are “in process.”

“If God has His way, every last one of [His people] will be restored, redeemed, remade for His eternal glory” [Hybels, 28].  We need to consider that people who peeve us are just people who are on their way, and where they are right now may not be where they are later.  If we can just get past the aspects of their behavior that bother us and acknowledge the inner person that can emerge with our help, we can serve more people than we think we can.

If we are walking with Christ, we have experienced the freedom from things that have enslaved us.  Our work can be helping others to see that this freedom is available for them.  “You get to be an agent of freedom in the lives of other people.”

People are enslaved to so many things today:  emotional bondage, financial bondage, sexual bondage and the list goes on and on.  They don’t see that the jail cell they reside in has a key that is very handy.  The key that will release them is the truth of a relationship with Jesus Christ.  John 8: 32 says it best:  “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  People can be freed from anything that has them tangled up.

Maybe I need to acknowledge I am a slave to the negative perceptions that I get when I am around certain people.   Maybe I need to pray for God to release me from these thoughts which hamper my ability to be a servant to certain types of people.  As I write about others who are enslaved, maybe I am enslaved also.

Lord, I ask that you create in me a compassion for the difficult people I encounter in my life, so together we can affect positive change in their lives.  Help me to be a servant to as many people as I can, realizing that we are all “in process’.  Help me to monitor my judgmental thoughts so I can be Your servant.

Amen…

“Whether you are a high-powered marketplace person, a stay-at-home mom, a full-time student, or something all-together different, you (yes you) can join God in making what is wrong in this world right!”   Bill Hybels from Holy Discontent.

Pastor Hybels is addressing all that is wrong in this world and to be honest, none of us have to look very far to see some things that are very wrong. The wrongness that you just cannot stand any more is your holy discontent.

Let’s focus on the phrase above: “you (yes you) can join God”. So many people may wonder why God has to be part of the effort. Does a person have to believe in God in order to make this world a better place?

The answer of course is no. There are many “good-minded” folks in this world who are trying to improve things with their efforts. But why is Hybels so focused on joining with God to right the wrongs?

Because restoration is what God is trying to do with our world.   God is trying to make what is wrong right again.

From the beginning, He made order out of disorder and darkness and He made humans in His own image. They were supposed to reflect His character. They were supposed to be earthy representatives of His rule and they were supposed to harness God’s creation [the world] in order to produce beauty and order.

We all know what happened.

God had been defining good and evil for man but God decided He would give man a choice in the matter. Man would have a chance to choose good or evil. Enter that tree, you know that tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Man makes that choice, to turn his back on God, to turn his back on a wonderful eternal life.   He does not trust God’s definition of good and evil. He listens to the serpent who promises that consuming the forbidden fruit will really not have any negative consequences.

Of course we are still living with the negative consequences. Adam and Eve destroyed man’s relationship with God and introduced sin into the world.

But God has not given up.

He wants to restore His relationship with man.   He wants to right the wrong. When you feel “holy discontent” you have a powerful partner working with you if you are a believer. Hybels says when you connect with God “it’s as if an enormous wave of positive energy is released inside you. . . .This energy causes you to act on the dissatisfaction that’s been brewing deep within your soul and compels you to say yes to joining forces with God so that the darkness and depravity around you gets pushed back.”

Natural responses to darkness and depravity are apathy, negativity, powerlessness, etc. Many people in this world do not want us taking action to correct things; let’s just roll with it and leave things as they are. Sometimes if muck is all you know, you learn to tolerate muck.

That is not God’s point of view. God wants restoration. I will go even further than that. God desires restoration.

He wants to restore His relationship with man and He wants to restore beauty and order to this world. Hybels says in God’s reality “[the] enslaved can be set free, what is broken can still be mended, what is diseased can still be restored, what is hated can still be loved, what is dirty can still be made clean and what is wrong can still be made right.”

If you have some frustration that is boiling over and you want to take action, it is essential for you to ask for Holy Ghost help if you want to maximize your impact. What is tearing up your heart is also tearing up the heart of God. Instead of just living with things as they are, we can be fueled by our frustration; we can know that with God, better days are ahead. “They [holy discontent people] listen to their soulish instinct inside of them that says life just doesn’t have to be the way that most people experience it” [Hybels, 27].

Don’t get me wrong, much good has been done by people who don’t necessarily believe in God, but if you want to really make a change for the better, join forces with our God who promises restoration.

Restoration is what God is focused on every moment of every day.

“He is working right this minute—even as you are reading this sentence—to call our sorry and broken world back to it’s original beauty and purpose” [Hybels, 26].

Frustration…

There it is.  That is what motivates most people to take action.

You see a mess and you just have to clean it up.

You see hunger and you have to feed the hungry person.

You see some horrible injustice and you go on a crusade to correct it.

At the root of all this is frustration. 

Bill Hybels* states that we see something about this world that is broken and we have a burning desire to fix it.

Whoa!  I can’t do this!  The problem is too big!  I don’t have the energy!  I don’t have the financial resources!  I don’t have the “connections” with the powerful people who can help me make a difference!

These are all valid reasons for doing nothing.

But here is where the negatives get overturned.   The frustration does not go away.  The insurmountable task is still there and you want to tackle it.  What do you do?

First of all, stop thinking of all the reasons that you cannot do something.   Surely life can be complex and some problems are so difficult that we don’t see ourselves taking on the task.  Many around you may pour cold water on your ideas.   They don’t have faith in your ability.  “The world” seems happy to just let a bad situation continue.   It is easy to give in and just sit on the couch and ignore a need.  Start thinking of all the reasons that you need to do something.

Secondly, think about what you are going to do and break down what you need to do in manageable steps.   Rushing in headlong can be defeating if you do not have a thoughtful plan.  Frustration may get you started on your actions leading to a change but frustration may not help you if it leads to rash action and stumbles.   If you find yourself stumbling too many times, you will give up on your efforts.

As you begin to tackle a problem, make sure you have little successes along the way and stop and celebrate those successes.  I spend time every day with people at a rehabilitation facility.  I am rehabilitating my own body from an accident.   I see people with disabilities and their problems seem so severe.  I also see people who are suffering from severe obesity and they want to be fit but they are weighing in at three hundred pounds.   How do we rehabilitate?  If you see any improvement at all, make a big deal out of it.  Improved movement in a limb that has been immobile is grounds for a whoopee!  Losing fifteen pounds is a big deal on your way to better fitness.  That does not mean that you need to share everything that happens with everyone.   But note it.  Be thankful for little positive things that happen along the way.  And yes, it never hurts to find a reasonable reward for your efforts.

As you have spent time thinking about your frustration, you should have a goal in mind.  Call it a “vision” if you must.  Cling to that vision.  When things get tough, that vision can keep you going.  You see the problem you are working as solved.   You can see the improved conditions.   You can anticipate the satisfaction you will feel when you know you have brought about change. 

Tap into the power of God.

If you are a Christian and you are frustrated and trying to affect change, you have had God in the process from the very beginning.   Let me tell you, you won’t have the strength or wisdom to pull off your change if you don’t ask God for help.   What you lack, He will deliver.  He is the power behind what you are doing.   You may be the branch that bears the fruit but He is the vine that gives you the energy to produce the fruit. 

When I gave my life to the Lord twenty years ago, one of the most inspirational verses that gave me direction and hope was Philippians 4:13:  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  I still think it is one of the most positive verses in the New Testament.    Like every person who faces life, I had my problems, some of them very daunting.  I kept this verse in front of me mentally and physically.   It literally is on my desk in my study. 

Guess what.  I still have problems but I have seen over the years that God can work miracles in this life if you let Him.  If you call on Him.  If you do what He tells you.  If you are the branch and avoid the temptation of taking the credit.

I agree with Pastor Hybels.  Frustration is the key factor that many of us need in order to take action, but frustration will not sustain us as we seek to affect change.  It is the factor that kick starts us.  Without it, we never begin. 

I know this is going to sound strange, but with so many problems in this broken world, thank you Lord that some of us feel frustration.

*author of Holy Discontent

“That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!”

I admit it.  I have been around long enough that when I hear this sentence, I know who said it…Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon that existed in the deep dark past…

As I kid I watched Popeye cartoons.  I was born in 1951 so Popeye had been around for a few years.  The comic strip was created in 1929 and when I was old enough to watch television, Popeye the comic strip was converted to Popeye Cartoons and the show was popular with youngsters.   The cartoons were a little primitive by today’s standards but when you had very little to watch at all, they seemed pretty good.

Pastor Hybels talks about Popeye as a way to illustrate motivation.  The cartoons tended to follow the same pattern over and over.   Popeye had a girlfriend named Olive Oyl and a nemesis named Bluto.   Bluto was a brute and he was constantly trying to steal Olive Oyl away from Popeye.  He specialized in making Popeye’s life miserable.   Despite Bluto’s irritating ways, I remember that Popeye always tried to maintain his composure, allowing Bluto to push harder and harder until he pushed Popeye too far.

That’s when Popeye uttered “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!”

If you remember Popeye cartoons, you know the drill.  Popeye would grab a can of spinach and he would squeeze it.   The spinach came flying out the top of the can and right into his mouth. 

Popeye had misshapened forearms anyhow, but when he ate a can of spinach they became huge.   You knew he could do some damage with his arms and he did.   He took out his frustration on Bluto and always won Olive back.

The point of all this is that Popeye did not have a hair trigger temper.  It took a while for him to build up to taking action but eventually he got there, his moment when he could not “stands no more.”

What does it take for you to reach the point of action?

Hybels says it is when we see something that is so wrong we cannot sit idly by. 

My wife is a devoted pet owner.  She has a large heart for animals.  When a news story comes on about animal abuse, I race to the remote control to get the television on a different station.   When an ASPCA add comes on with pets in distress and the request for aid, she has to turn the ad off.   You might say that her love of animals is her passion.   When she sees an animal in distress, she cannot “stands no more.”  We currently have three stray cats in our home.  Several years ago, we took in a stray and her kittens and she had five kittens after she came into our house.   At one point we had nine darling cats in our home.  Thankfully, we got all but three adopted.  For the three that remain, my wife makes sure that  this little segment of the feline population is loved.

Folks, there are so many needs in this world and as Christians, we are called to serve.  Matthew 25 is pretty clear about what we are supposed to do:  The Son of Man will come in all His glory and will say “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.  Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?   ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  “The King will answer and say to them,  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

This is a call to serve.

Will it take something outrageous for us to act? 

Maybe it will.  Maybe we will have to have a Popeye moment when we can’t “stands it anymore!”

Whatever it takes, the needs are great and they are evident, in the jailhouse, on the street corner, under the bridge, at the mission house and yes, even in the pew next to you at church.

Look, talk to the person with a caring heart, try to determine the need, figure out what you can do and grab a can of spinach and squeeze…

In Holy Discontent by Pastor Bill Hybels, his primary concern is with people who are so discontented with life that they become motivated to change things.

He uses as his Biblical example Moses who was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Moses had grown up as an Egyptian but he knew he was an Israelite. He saw his people in captivity building the Egyptian empire as construction slaves.   You know the story.   One day he saw an Egyptian master beating an Israelite slave and he intervened. In the intervention, he began to fight the Egyptian master and he killed him.

Hybels uses this example as an example of someone getting so upset that he takes action.

It’s pretty dramatic. Most of us don’t have a life experience like that.   Most of us don’t get so upset about things that we intervene in the troubles of others. Unlike Hybels, I don’t recall ever seeing a fight where someone is punched or beaten.

Most of us don’t live lives like that. We live lives with much less drama.

Yet the life we lead can cause us to give up.

Hybels focuses on the discontented young Moses; he does not take us further into Exodus when the older Moses declined to be the leader of his people.   God intervened in Moses’ life and told him that he was the designated leader who would lead his people out of Egypt. Moses did not see it that way.   He did not have the skills of a leader or so he said.   He lacked eloquence.   He did not have a leader’s skill set.

Had Moses given up on himself?

Life for all of us can be challenging. You have heard the old cliché: “bad things happen to good people.”   When bad things happen, some just quit trying. Instead of battling back, people just resign themselves to the problems that have come and they give up. Some just fold their hands, resign themselves to the couch and says “let others do it.”   Others just get tired of trying. Maybe things are not easy.   Work is required. The work is done and one expects success, but success is not forthcoming.   You continue working and you see no results. Over and over again the process of getting ahead is a frustrating experience and slowly but surely you begin to cut corners.   You may even cheat a little.   You are satisfied with less and less until you accept things that in the past would not have been acceptable. You begin to evolve into a person who just can’t do what you thought you could do.

You become a Moses who doubted his ability.

I am old enough to see this in my life every day. As one gets into the 60’s decade of life, health challenges can come. People begin to think about retirement, you know that time of life when you begin to reconstruct a life away from employment. Your youthful idols begin to pass away, the musicians and movies stars of your generation, and that is a reminder that you won’t be around forever. These things can be depressing.

You can begin to say “what’s the use?”

Until God intervenes and says “I have something for you to do.”

It may be to volunteer your time tutoring children. It may be picking up litter on the road.   It may be starting up a visitation program at church.   Maybe it will be a stronger commitment like going on a mission trip to aid people in a foreign country.

I am a firm believer that as long as we are alive, God has a purpose for us.

I was in the presence of a dear woman who dedicated her life to furthering The Kingdom. She hosted Bible studies in her home for decades.   She reached out to the unchurched in her neighborhood and in even more extreme places like jail.

Until her body began to fail.

She was bedridden and never got up from bed.

What did she do?

She became a mighty bedridden prayer warrior.

I was with her in her last days.   She was in awful pain but when I met her she began to pray for me.

What would most of us do? Most would not think of others at a time like that.   We would be involved with our own maladies probably.   Not her. She prayed for me.

We do become discontented at times.   Maybe our discontent causes us to act. Maybe you see yourself in the Moses story as he came to the aid of his countryman who was getting beaten. How many of you see yourself in the Moses story of denial, when God says go do this and you say, I can’t, I won’t or I am just too tired.

Drama is good; it catches our attention, but most of us don’t have that much drama in our lives.   We just have what we call “the daily grind.” Instead of letting life get you down, ask God “What can we do today?”

Be ready, He will tell you.

And He expects you do it.

In my years of teaching speech communication, one of the most fascinating subjects I taught was persuasion. I would define it as the act of putting ideas into words which, when spoken to a listener, will cause that listener to alter his or her beliefs. The listener may even take action based on the expression of the ideas.

Pastor Bill Hybels bases his whole book Holy Discontent on the thesis that he wants to know what motivates people “to work where they work, volunteer their time to the groups they serve, and donate money to the causes they support” [Hybels, 13].

In other words, he wants to know the root cause of what makes us change or act.

He knows that without motivation, people stagnate; he knows that Christians stagnate.

General theories of motivation state that humans are motivated to acquire basic needs [food, water, air, shelter and sleep].   We are motivated to have relationships with others, especially a member of the opposite sex. We seek status which can be achieved with certain material items.   This means we are motivated to have the items that “build” our self-esteem.   Since most humans are social animals, we want to belong to a group or groups.   We do what we have to do to congregate with others we like.  We want to live in a safe neighborhood, have access to healthcare, steady employment, and protection from environmental forces.   Safety is a prime motivator.  Finally, some will work hard to accomplish what they can in life by reaching their greatest potential, as long as they feel they have the capacity to do it. For example, some individuals may have the desire to be a wealthy businessman, while others may want be a successful musician or an athlete. This motivational factor is called self-actualization.

What is Hybels getting at when he asks the question that started it all: “ Why do people do what they do?”

Why is that so important to him?

He really wants to know what makes a Christian believe.

He really wants to know what makes a Christian take action.

Before I was born again, I thought persuasion and the underlying core idea of motivation was just a way to manipulate people and indeed that could be all it is for some people, but I don’t think Hybels is thinking like that.   He likes seeing people grow and he knows that the best way for them to grow is to feel something deep inside that makes them want to do something different.

Belief in God is a given for the Christian, or so we assume.

It is the taking action part that is hurting today’s church. This lack of action has turned a generation away from active church membership [the “millennials”–ages 18 to 30 year old].   Christian research experts pin down five things that are diminishing millennial participation in church. First, this generation does not just want preaching.   They want to see actions backing up words.   The trappings of a sanctuary are not important; they want to get out and make disciples in the world rather than just sit in a pew and talk about making disciples. To them this is hypocrisy and this generation hates hypocrisy. Secondly, the message of the church should be very plain. Instead of wandering around trying to understand what is going on in church, it should be clear to everyone who comes in the door.   The first-time visitor should know what to do, where to go and how they can “plug into” the church. For the millennial, the church should not be a place for rest, it should be a place for growth.   Church activities should be designed to connect people with God and other church members. Some Millennials want to see church as an opportunity to explore spiritual life on their own terms, free to decide for themselves when to stay on the edges of a church experience and when to fully enter in.  If there is not an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and put love into action, they lose interest fast. Millennials want to be taken seriously today. They’re not interested in earning their place at the table at some future date; they want a seat there now. Their desire is to be taken seriously and to be given real responsibility. Lack of opportunities for action have made millennials feel no sense of obligation to attend church. Previous generations went to church regardless. At the same time, being an active part of a faith community can provide young adults with exactly the mentorship and guidance they crave from older adults. Millennials know they need mentors and that is where older generation Christians can help grow the church.*

Pastor Hybels is not just focused on “millennials;” he wants all Christians to believe.   He wants all Christians to take action.

He recognizes that the church is not the pastor.

The church is really not just the people.

The core of the church is the burning desire each church member has to believe in God and act on that belief.

This is the core idea of holy discontent.

*From the “Exponential Website”, 2017.