Bill Hybels was asked to speak at a gathering of local medical doctors. It was required attendance for every doctor that was connected with a certain hospital system. As the meeting began with all the preliminaries, he noticed that really none of the doctors were paying much attention. They were all text messaging, looking up sports scores and who knows what else on their blackberry's. Needless to say this didn't make him (Bill Hybels) very motivated to speak to these doctors.
As he approached the lecturn he set his notes and and scan the audience to see how many were actually paying attention...none really. So he began by asking, "Just out of curiosity, how did you end up in the medical field?" A few eyeball looked up at him, then he said, "You folks look like pretty intelligent people. I bet you could have picked a career that was alot more lucrative and alot let demanding!" He continued, "I marvel at your ability and your desire to get up every morning and find solutions for peoples whose bodies are diseased, injured, mangled and dying."
He continued to share his theory of "Holy Discontent." How that there must be something within them that continues to drive them day after day. Maybe they were raised around someone who a chronic illness or they had a grandmother with altzheimer's or parkinsons disease. Something caused them to say, "I just can't stand it anymore!"
What about you? Why do you do what you do? Is it just to get a paycheck and pay the bills? Do you love what you are doing in life right now? I challenge you to begin to look at your life and see what it is that gets you boiling on the inside...that makes you stand up say, "I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Thursday, August 02, 2007
What Can't You Stand?
Moses, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham and Dr. Bob Pierce (Founder of World Vision) all had one...A Holy Discontent. Moses was bothered by the oppression of the Hebrew people. Martin Luther King was sick and tired of the discrimination of blacks, Mother Teresa couldn't stand to see the poorest of the poor living without hope and dying without dignity...and the list goes on.
In his book: "Holy Discontent" Bill Hybel's uses the story or analogy of Popeye and his eating spinach. When he would finally have enough of what ever was going on in that epsiode he would say, "I can't stands it no more!" Then he would pop open a can of spinach and get huge forearms and take care of whoever or whatever it was that was causing trouble. And that is the question that keeps getting asked in this book...What can't you stand?
How do you answer that question? What takes place in this world that everytime you see it you just want to explode? For me several things come to mind: people that misrepresent the Church, the name of Christ or Christianity in the Media. Students blinded by the enemy and missing out on a relationship with God. Finally, I would say it would have to be Christians in general who do not care about missions. I guess that my list could go on and on, but those are the first few that come to mind.
I love what he says about Mother Teresa and this REALLY challenged me...he said, "Mother Teresa didn't devote herself to this casue because of a fat paycheck every month; she served the under-resourced people in her midst because her holy discontent had her by the throat and wouldn't let go."
Am I living out my life with my holy discontent grasping my throat not willing to let go? Or am I simply going through life collecting a paycheck and doing a job? I don't know where you are at in your life right now, but will you join me in asking God to help us identify our holy discontent? But lets not stop there...lets get off our butts and do something about it!!
In his book: "Holy Discontent" Bill Hybel's uses the story or analogy of Popeye and his eating spinach. When he would finally have enough of what ever was going on in that epsiode he would say, "I can't stands it no more!" Then he would pop open a can of spinach and get huge forearms and take care of whoever or whatever it was that was causing trouble. And that is the question that keeps getting asked in this book...What can't you stand?
How do you answer that question? What takes place in this world that everytime you see it you just want to explode? For me several things come to mind: people that misrepresent the Church, the name of Christ or Christianity in the Media. Students blinded by the enemy and missing out on a relationship with God. Finally, I would say it would have to be Christians in general who do not care about missions. I guess that my list could go on and on, but those are the first few that come to mind.
I love what he says about Mother Teresa and this REALLY challenged me...he said, "Mother Teresa didn't devote herself to this casue because of a fat paycheck every month; she served the under-resourced people in her midst because her holy discontent had her by the throat and wouldn't let go."
Am I living out my life with my holy discontent grasping my throat not willing to let go? Or am I simply going through life collecting a paycheck and doing a job? I don't know where you are at in your life right now, but will you join me in asking God to help us identify our holy discontent? But lets not stop there...lets get off our butts and do something about it!!
Holy Discontent
Currently sitting here in my office reading a new book that I got earlier in the week, it is called "Holy Discontent" by Bill Hybels. I first heard about the book through Mark Batterson's blog, (its kind of an old post, but I got real behind this summer reading blogs). Anyway...Highly recomend it...I will share more shortly about what God is challenging me with through this book.
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