Holy Discontent

“Are we there yet?”

Those words take me back in time to when my children – and if I admit it even my younger self – called out plaintively from the back seat of a car. “Are we there yet?”

That question carries with it the kernels of impatience and dissatisfaction. The journey is already too long. I don’t want to be on this car ride anymore! I want to get out of here!

We live in an age of discontent, impatience, and dissatisfaction. Turn or click on news about the political process in the United States and you might wonder how long this journey will be.

As we have just come through the Lenten journey – days in the wilderness, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally Easter – we may think we have “arrived,” but we have not. We are acutely aware of the tension of “already but not yet” in our journey with God. The same is true at Calvin Seminary.

We have made steps in Hispanic Ministry, Prison Ministry, Excellence in Preaching and aiding churches seeking renewal, but we have more to go in this journey. As you read about the happenings at Calvin Seminary, I want you to know that we are grateful to you for your encouragement, support and prayers. We are humbled by how God has used us. We also have a longing for more.

We long for racial reconciliation, and more renewal for ourselves, society and the church.

In Exodus 2 and 3, we see the discontent (and anger) of Moses when he kills an Egyptian who had beaten a Hebrew. Moses flees the scene, but God finds him and draws him to a burning bush that does not burn up. In that holy place, God calls Moses to the work of rescue.

This scene speaks to us. Our grumblings, our discontentment, even our anger redeemed by God’s power can be unexpected starting points for the work to which He calls us. Our wholly ordinary places of work, worship and rest take on new significance when we realize they are they Lord’s – they are “holy ground.”

When God refines our discontent by an encounter with his Holiness, we are reminded that we haven’t “arrived” – that we have a call, a journey ahead of us. And he comforts us the same way He comforted Moses: “I will be with you.”

Know that we at Calvin Seminary desire to develop and be marked by a spirit of holy discontent. We are not “there yet,” but we pray that our longing for more will be purified by God’s holiness. We are deeply grateful to be on this journey with Him alongside you.