The Silver Lining

Don't ask me how this thought came to me. It can only be contributed to the good Lord above, because even as I am currently typing, I'm not entirely sure where this post is going.

As I was running yesterday, I had a thought. Is there any positive side of discontentment? That's a strange thought, isn't it? Well, welcome to the every day thought process of Jenna. It's exhausting.

Of course {in my mind} my first response {to myself} to that thought was absolutely not.

But then I stopped {my thoughts not running} and really pondered over this. As I  was running while watching the sunset over the Mississippi River, trying to slow down my breathing, and talking to God about this oh so important subject to me {I'm a pro multi-tasker}, another thought hit me.

I am discontent with my heart, my sin, my attitudes, my selfishness, this life. I'm gonna call this a holy discontentment. I feel like I've heard this terminology around the block somewhere and feel sure there is some actual definition for it, but I'm gonna make my own today.

I believe there is a distinct difference between being discontent with our earthly lives/pleasures/happiness and being discontent with  the state of our world, children starving, human trafficking, the lostness of our world. This type of holy discontentment spurs us on to do something. to take action. to show love to others.

Another facet of my holy discontentment concept is a deeper longing for something more only filled by Jesus and a yearning for eternity in the presence of God/His second coming.

I'm discontent with being a mediocre Christian. This is a good thing. I hope I am never content with where I am in my walk with Him. I can't believe that I am about to type this out but discontentment can be a good thing. Especially when it leads me to seek out the Lord to fill that inner longing.  

Discontentment that leads me to the feet of Jesus cannot be a bad thing.

The silver lining of this is encouraging to me. I do believe living in ignorance of discontentment in our lives is very dangerous, because obviously that's not leading us to Jesus for fulfillment. I pray that we are always aware and diligently examining our own hearts to determine our true motives and how we can replace the me with Him.

Lord, please use my holy discontentment to impact the world around me for your glory.

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{This series is a part of a writing challenge given by the nester, Myquillyn Smith, to write for 31 Days. You can check the write31days website out here and enjoy hundreds of other bloggers joining together for this challenge. My posts are a part of my personal topic choice of 31 Days of Contentment, and you can find the link for the entire series here.}