Divine Discontent

A few years ago we talked to the kids about weaknesses.

I asked them, "What is a weakness?" 

My little girl answered, "Like, if you're not good at gluing?” 😂

I immediately envisioned someone throwing their glue stick across the room wailing, "I JUST CAN'T DO IT! WHY CAN'T I BE A GOOD GLUER LIKE SUSIE?”

If only my weakness was as simple as not being a good gluer!

Awhile ago, I was NOT doing well. I found myself face to face with a whole list of my inadequacies. Like they all decided to surface at the SAME TIME. I was caught in this weird place where I was simultaneously growing and becoming a better person in some areas, but failing miserably in others. The gap felt colossal. And despite those positive strides in the direction I wanted to go- those dang weaknesses almost debilitated me.

One night while listening to me sob, my husband tenderly & earnestly told me STRUGGLE IS GOOD. IT’S OK TO STRUGGLE.

I let that sink in. And felt relief.

It is OK to recognize the negative things.

Michelle D. Craig called this divine discontent.

She said we should WELCOME these “feelings... that call us to a higher way,” that “they are God given”! They "create an urgency to act.”

But there is a dangerous flip side.

Satan’s counterfeit is “paralyzing discouragement.” Boy I feel that. But “we can choose to walk the higher path that leads us to seek for God and His peace and grace, or we can listen to Satan, who bombards us with messages that we will never be enough... Our discontent can become divine—or destructive.” 

I choose divine!

I choose humility. 

I choose grace. 

I choose to give what I can. 

I choose to move forward. 

It’s painful at times. 

But I often think of how gems are formed: water & magma filter downward through cracks in the earth. With pressure, heat, & time, crystals form! IN THE CRACKS. 

Sometimes the best parts of us grow in the very space that is cracked.

“I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Eth. 12:27)

So glue away, friends, glue away.