No one likes feeling dissatisfied. It’s contentment we long for. We desire a sense that all is well rather than feeling things are not as they should be.
But dissatisfaction is all around us. A dissatisfaction, perhaps, with our homes, our jobs, our friendships, our church, our appearance, our marriage. It’s frustrating when things aren’t as we want them to be.
Sometimes dissatisfaction shows a heart gone astray. Yet dissatisfaction has its uses too – so often it proves to be a spur towards change. Sensing that things aren’t as they should be, we embark on our latest DIY home improvement project; we renew our gym membership; we strive for a work promotion; we invest more deeply in our friendships; or we pray for the health of our church.
Our sense that things aren’t as good as they could be, becomes the spur which persuades us to work for change and growth.
Dissatisfaction and a desire for growth
Christian discipleship is no different. The Bible does, of course, have a clear call toward contentment. Paul writes of the way he learned to be content in need and in plenty (Philippians 4:11-12). But there are also many places where the Bible anticipates that Christian believers will experience a sense of discontent. And in that discontent will seek spiritual growth. Earlier in Philippians, Paul puts it like this:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)
It is his clear sense of things not being as they should be, of there being a goal that he has not realised, that causes Paul to press on. And ‘all of us’ Paul writes, ‘who are mature should take such a view of things.’ (Philippians 3:15)
Dissatisfaction and the Spirit
Often this sense of dissatisfaction will be acute. In Romans, Paul identifies it as a source of groaning:
We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)
Strikingly, Paul understands this groaning dissatisfaction to be the result of the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who causes us to groan. For the Spirit living within us somehow emphasizes the gap between what is and what will be. Indeed, without that gap, there would be no place for Christian hope.
Who hopes for what they already have? Paul asks. But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:25)
Dissatisfaction and counsel
People seek out help when things are hurting. And we, through care and counsel, try to reduce the hurt. Suffering isn’t good. God is against it. One day he will remove it forever. Our efforts to combat hardship and suffering are right and proper.
Yet this side of glory residual troubles will remain. We cannot expect, and should not promise, for God to bring resolution to every single one of the battles and struggles that we currently experience. He intends to leave us in some ways dissatisfied for now. He knows that it is good for us that we should hope for more.
So, in our anxieties, our physical aches and pains, our relational struggles and our personal frustrations, we may just need to recalibrate. Instead of allowing these things to tug us toward despair because we feel so frustrated that we never seem to be free of them, perhaps we may need to let them lift our gaze.
For who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:25). Our discontent can, in God’s good purposes, become the means by which our hearts are turned again to the God who has promised to renew all things. That doesn’t mean we are wrong to strive to be free of trouble, or to seek to resolve it for others. It doesn’t mean indulging discontent with God. But it may just bring a different perspective on those troubles that prove stubbornly persistent. Dissatisfaction can lead us to hope.
