I finished Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels last night. A great read and very inspiring. I almost wish it wasn’t over just because I’m still searching, waiting for some direction and clarity when it comes to my own personal Passion Groove and Holy Discontent. Granted I don’t think Hybels is in anyway attempting to tell you what your own personal Holy Discontent or purpose or passion is – I think he’s just encouraging you to find it and dive into it and live it out in your life.
When I left off last time I believe I was just finishing the chapter on feeding your passion. Rather than running from those things that get our blood boiling or give us our passion, we should run straight towards them.
Rather than running away from Goliath, David said, “I’ve had enough! I’m not putting up with this guy putting my God down anymore! Someone has to do something! And if no one else will – I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stands no more!” He then takes off with his sling and rock and confronts what he sees wrong with the world. God gives him an unbelievable courage and strength and he gets rid of the giant.
When we find our own passions we need to do the same. Live with and spend your time with the poor, the homeless, AIDS victims. Spend time with the lost. Whatever it is that you can’t stand – run towards it so your fire will burn brighter than ever.
Some other great thoughts from the book:
- “If your holy discontent decides somewhere along the line to morph, my advice to you is to follow it.”
- After going to a U2 concert, Hybels noted, “… just how devoted Bono is to his holy discontent. If I had to classify it, I’d call his cause dismantling apathy. He just can’t stand apathy!”
- The number of times Scripture mentions God’s passionate concern fo the poor, the oppressed the windows, the orphans, those who are incarcerated, and those who have no voice is astounding!”
- Hybels talks next on the idea of the fundamental state and normal state. “In the normal state, you’re almost entirely self-absorbed. You have a reactive approach to life. And you try to maintain the status quo… ‘When we accept the world as it is, we deny our ability to see something better, and hence our ability to be something better. We become what we behold.'”
- “In the fundamental state, however, people care so much about getting results that they begin to move and breathe in a totally different realm. They operate with intentionality. They act with massive doses of enthusiasm and persistence. They surrender their ego because the cause simply can’t afford their pride. They open themselves up to any and all new ideas and forms of input – regardless of where those suggestions come from… Their creativity kicks up a notch. Their energy soars. Their passion swells.”
- Hybels recalls the story of Bob and his wife who were living the typical American life when suddenly his church asked him and his wife to move to Australia for three years to work on church plants in the country. “You may want to take note: this is what chasing your holy discontent with all you’ve got can do to you. In the blink of an eye, it’s very possible that you too will wake up one day and find yourself relocated to a place I’ve started calling life’s ‘lunatic fringe,’ and the only thing crazier than the destination itself is how much you enjoy it once you’ve arrived.”
- “The moral of the story is that a bad day lived from the energy of your holy discontent is far better than the best day lived anywhere else.” – I love that. I look forward to that and desire that.
- “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves… Defend the rights of the poor and needy, uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute and rescue the poor and the helpless.”
- “Part of what it means to operate in the fundamental state is that you care more about the results you want to create than about getting what you want.”
- “Can you imagine what might happen in corporations and churches and families all over the world if we all got serious about becoming fundamental-state people?”
- “Beg him (God) to pump you full of Spirit-inspired-holy-discontent-driven, refuse-to-be-shaken belief!”
- “When you charge toward your holy discontent with boundless passion, optimism and energy, you become the very best kind of contagious!… Erwin McManus says that it is this context that true greatness gets unleashed.”
- “Don’t forget that there’s a reason why you grew up the way you did. Why you’ve experienced what you have. Why you’ve traveled where you’ve been. And he is looking for someone just like you to start setting some things right in this world.”
- “Friends, in what other life are you going to go all out? We all have one shot and one shot only to leave a lasting legacy – a definitive mark on this world that reflects our decision to lean into, not away from, our areas of holy discontent.”
- Finally I love this challenge, “We steward the only message on planet Earth that can give people what their hearts need most, which is hope.” It reminds me of Mark Batterson’s quote, “The greatest message demands the greatest marketing.” What and how are you going to get out and share that greatest message with the least of these? What drives you nuts to see in the world around you? What is it that you see that you know has to be made right? I’m still searching and praying for clarity on those things in my life. As you can probably tell by reading my blog, my heart is tugged in many number of ways and I’m trusting God to not only point me in the direction he wants me to go, but the direction he wants Laurie and I to go together. I ask that as you seek and search for your passion grove, pray that we find ours as well.
