The Glocal Church

As I continue to read Bill Hybels’ book, Holy Discontent, I am reminded over and over again, that the greatest movements in history came about because someone reached a tipping point, they had enough, and were motivated by a holy discontent, or a “Popeye Moment,” and thus they worked to change their world.

Hybels expands on the fact that throughout the years, many have preached about the importance of contentment. In many ways they were right. Jesus and Paul, both preached about importance of contentment, especially regarding finances and circumstances.             

(See Luke 3:14; Philippians 4:11-12; 1 Timothy 6:6-8 & Hebrews 13:5).

However, as I continue to read Hybels’ book and God’s Word, I am convinced that while remaining content with your circumstances, is essential to living a victorious Christian life, we must also guard ourselves from becoming obesely content and lazy. Both of which lead to greed and selfishness. If we don’t, we can give Satan a seam in which to exploit us and make our hearts bitter and full of envy, and jealously or we can easily become grotesquely lazy!!! Jesus stated in Matthew 15:11 that “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’”  Christ went on to say in Matthew 15:18:  But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’

Basically, trash in, trash out!  

Furthermore, it’s just as much of a sin to remain complacent, which by the way, the dictionary defines complacency as being pleased with one’s own merits. That is just as sinful as lack of content regarding those things which Jesus and Paul identified.

As a student of leadership, having studying the various leadership styles of great leaders, one leader, stands out to me, as one of the most influential and visionary of his time. I am writing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had an incredible moment of holy discontent. I recently watched a documentary on this visionary leader, and it described in detail, his “Popeye Moment.” On the day that Dr. King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King’s associates, had copies of the speech, and the draft from which he was to speak. However, mid-way through the speech, he had reached his moment of holy discontent, and that moment will be felt, heard and lived for years to come. At the very centerpiece of his manuscript, Dr. King abandoned his written draft, and spoke from a heart that was burdened for an unjustly oppressed people…It was truly an inspiring “Popeye Moment,” and one that forever changed the civil rights movement and one that eventually cost Dr. King his life. However, he so believed in his words and his cause, he was prepared to lose his life, as he received many death threats, yet he still carried on!

Hybels said this of Dr. King’s holy discontent “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew that his activism would probably cost him his life…I tend to think that the holy discontent that had taken up residence inside him wouldn’t allow him to give anything less than his entire life-mind, spirit, soul, and body, for such a worthy goal.” 

If we have nothing in our life worth dying for, then what is our reason for living?