Sunday, June 28, 2009

Waiting and the End Results

I've been learning a little life lesson recently. I'll start with the metaphor: ice skating of course :-). In my ice skating lessons, I've been learning 3-turns. I'll admit, they should be easy, but for me, I'm feeling rather uncoordinated and having a hard time with them. The thing about 3-turns is you can't force them. To do a 3-turn, you skate forward on one foot, turn your body to face backwards and your foot will turn on a dime so you are now going backwards. The thing that gets me is focusing on the end result. I focus so much on turning my foot...I want to do a 3-turn. But my teacher constantly reminds me, I need to just let it happen. I need to turn my body first (my head, my arms, my shoulder, etc) until last-but-not-least my little foot just has to turn.

We heard a sermon at church this past weekend along the same lines. It was Bill Hybels' sermon on "Holy Discontent". He talks about how something might bug you, a pssion God has given you, and it bugs you and irritates you until you can't stand it anymore. You get so annoyed that you simply must do something. Many times people focus on the doing something part and do not consider the passions God has given them. They think they will just start volunteering somewhere or helping people, which isn't bad, but God maybe giving them an even bigger dream if they stop being busy for a moment and look to Him.

Just like doing 3-turns, there are so many things in life that are exciting and we want to be at the end results, but many times, its not just about the end results, its about waiting patiently and growing in the meantime, its about things God wants to teach us so that we may better enjoy and understand the end results.

4 comments:

Steve Turnbull said...

Thanks for this post, BP. Good thoughts. Did you watch the Hybels talk on video at EBC? I heard/watched that when he first gave it at the Leadership Summit a few years ago, and I too found a lot of value in it.

Bethany said...

Yes, it was a video. Most likely the same one you've seen. He's not my favourite. I think it is useful, but I think it makes people feel guilty if they don't have a specific discontent right that second or if their discontent changes. They can't force it.

Steve Turnbull said...

Hmm. Interesting observation. That's a fairly Lutheran instinct - or at least a broadly "reformation" instinct - to be suspicious of giving people "law" that just makes them feel guilty without giving them a Christocentric gospel.

Your comments make me want to review the talk. I remember having a different reaction, but it would be interesting to listen again with your comments in mind.

Was it part of a series that EBC is doing?

Bethany said...

maybe I have some Lutheran blood in me after all...must be all that Hallesby I've been reading. Yes, I'm very suspicious of giving people "law". I'm sorry, but I don't see "holy discontent" in the Bible. Maybe it was mis-translated from the original Greek. And like I said, in general, I'm not a Hybels fan.

What was your reaction when you heard the talk? The first time I heard it was at a Children's Ministry conference at Willow and (even then I thought it could be pretty easily summed up in a sentence or two) I was sure my holy discontent was people not thinking children could be close to God or interact with Him at all, I think it still is, but I'm not always sure God has opened the doors for me to do something along those lines...at least not to the caliber Hybels talks about. It makes me think though as I am going back to school for business...why am I doing that? I guess, for me, Hybels needs to realize that not everyone can make a career out of their holy discontent like he has. But I could be wrong.

Well, they are doing a summer series at EBC called "John's Best Friend: Learning about Jesus through the Eyes of His Best Friend" so Jason and Jason have been going through the book of John and its been very cool and powerful. But Bob butts in once in a while and does these off-topic things (like the Hybels message this week and a message about volunteering a few weeks ago). I wish they'd stick with John.