Are you satisfied?
I keep circling back on this question through my life. Different places, different people, but always the same question. No matter our circumstance in life, there is a deep dissatisfaction that defines most people. A holy discontent that hangs over their daily journeys. Each person recognizes it within themselves, the chilly spectre that lurks in the shadows, but most are unable to identify it, let alone articulate it.
Yet it is real. It haunts us, like a cold that has settled in deep into the bones. It leeches your life-force and taints every interaction you have. Relationships seem stale as month old bread, and the colour drains from the world. It's dull, drab, dreary. Is this how we define our faith? A distant echo of what could (should?) be?
I've pondered this question through life's ups and downs, meandered through its halls, steeped in its warm water. This has not been a safe journey, a mere Sunday stroll through the country lanes. It's an armed assault on a fortified beach front. The costs to explore are high, but the costs to sit at home are higher.
What if our dissatisfaction is God's Spirit working in our hearts? What if we've all believed a lie, settled for the foothills when we were born for the mountains? We would never know the thrill of climbing a rock face, of looking eye to eye with eagles or gazing upon the plains from the heavens.
To discover the root of this spectre we have to leave the safety of the plains and trek to the mountain top. The journey is dangerous, fraught with perils our bodies are unprepared for. Rich with adrenaline inducing experiences that will set our hearts racing and our minds free.
We will need to rediscover our original calling, the hopes long tucked away in our attic to collect dust. We will need to uncover something new, like a young boy discovering the sunset for the very first time. Rays radiating over the mountains warming our chilled skin.
No longer will we be defined by the questions of what could or should have been, but instead take firm steps towards what we will be. There are scars to be earned, wounds to be endured, battles to be fought. We will have moments of despair, others of total elation. Yet we will journey and discover who we were meant to be, and who we will be again.
This is not a battle we can fight alone. God has laid our steps before us, and in our foolishness we thought to take credit. Yet this journey is not about our accomplishments but about our surrender. The valleys are too deep, the cliffs too sheer for us to traverse. Instead, our Father will teach us who He has created us to be. Our Saviour will cradle us in His loving arms to show us again that He is our King. He is our Hope, our Light and our Redeemer.
There is hope.
