We’d gotten new tires, but every so often we noticed that one of them was low on air. I'd try to remember to put air into it, but there were times we drove with lower pressure in the tire than it should have had. This past Monday it was low again, so I pulled into a gas station to add some air. (Amazingly, I found a station that offered free air! Isn't that a novel idea — free air?) I took the air nozzle, punched the little end of it with my fingernail, and heard a hiss. I attached the hose to the valve stem and crouched beside it in the 90-degree heat. It seemed to take forever to get rid of the tire’s squished look. In fact, it was still low!

Diann had stayed in the running car with the air conditioning. (I am, after all, a gallant husband, braving the harsh elements to keep our chariot roadworthy!) I was frustrated because the tire didn't seem to be going back to its healthy round shape. Finally Diann pulled herself away from comfortably reading her Reader's Digest, rolled the window down an inch or so (so that none of the cool air could escape), pointed to the air compressor, and asked, “Did you push the ON button?”

The ON button? Who said anything about an ON button? I thought the compressor would activate when I pushed the hose onto the valve stem. I had a decision to make: should I stand all day by that stupid tire, trying to get air into it the way I had been? Or should I swallow my pride and punch the ON button? I walked sheepishly over to the machine and pressed the ON button. Sure enough, I heard a whirring sound over the noise of the car’s engine and the air conditioner (which Diann continued to enjoy, with her Reader's Digest).

Soon, thanks to her pointing out the ON button, we were on our way with good pressure in all four tires. The next day I got that tire fixed; I had had enough! It turned out that it had a bad valve stem. I realize now that I should have done something about that slow leak a couple of months ago. It's amazing what we'll put up with!

DISCONTENT CAN BE GOOD
There are a lot of times, like the case of the slow-leaking tire, when we should be discontented with the way we find things. Last week we talked about the positive power of being contented; there are also many situations where we should not be contented!

Take the space shuttle as an example. Two tragedies have reminded us that seemingly small parts of the shuttle, like O-rings and a missing heat shield tile, are very important. Now the engineers take it very seriously when they’re dissatisfied with the condition of the shuttle.

Who would want to go to a doctor who’s contented with what he learned in medical school fifteen years ago? We want a doctor who’s always dissatisfied with what he knows — so that he keeps learning.

In a manufacturing plant there are acceptable tolerances in the specs of a manufactured item. The people involved with the manufacturing process are expected to be discontented with anything but acceptable tolerances.

Can you successfully teach someone something if they’re contented with what they already know? Being teachable means possessing a healthy kind of discontent: a discontent with what you know because you want to know more.

We all want to be contented, and that's good. We’re supposed to find contentment, as we reflected on last week. On the other hand, we won’t have the best of the life that God has planned for us unless we also recognize the value of being discontented.

DISCONTENTED PAUL
Last week we looked at the apostle Paul's words to the Philippian Christians (in the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians). He wrote about how he was contented. Today we’ll look at what he wrote in chapter three, and how he also had a healthy discontent.

Before Paul was found by Christ on the road to Damascus, he had been very contented with his spiritual condition: with the religious family he was born into and what he had achieved religiously through his own effort. He wrote about that pre-Christian part of his life, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4b-6)

Paul had lived with great confidence in his spiritual condition. He was contented with who he was as a religious person. However, things were turned completely around for him. He continued, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” (Philippians 3:7) What had made him contented before was no longer important to him, because now he had Jesus! He went on, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, . . .” (Philippians 3:8-9)

Paul had mistakenly believed that if he was better than, say, 90 per cent of other people — even 90 per cent or so of religious people — he could be contented. Now he knew that true contentment comes from knowing Christ — and yet (and this is truly amazing) he now possessed a healthy discontent, because he wanted to know more of Christ and be more like Him!

Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14)

Paul had found contentment in Christ. He no longer had to strive to be accepted by God, because he knew that he was accepted through Christ's love for him, Christ's sacrifice for him on the cross, and Christ's pursuit of him. On the other hand, now Paul possessed a healthy discontent! He wanted to take hold of Christ as much as Christ had taken hold of him! He wanted to know more about Christ, to be more like Christ, and to serve Him more completely. He wanted more of Christ — which he knew he’d fully enjoy only when he was in heaven. This is divine discontent, and it's something we should all strive to possess.

WANTING MORE WITH CHRIST
Jesus calls us to follow Him, which means that we can't stay where we are! Christ finds us and accepts us where we are and He loves us as we are; however, He doesn’t leave us where He found us, nor does He allow us to be contented with who we were when He found us! Jesus comforts the afflicted, but He also afflicts the comfortable!

This is an amazing yet seemingly ambiguous part of being Christ's people: He loves and accepts us the way we are and we can find contentment in Him, but He’s also always calling us and challenging us to grow closer to Him, become more like Him, and serve Him more completely. In these ways we’re to exhibit a divine discontent with the way things are. The fact is that the Lord can't do anything with a completely contented person!

We need to ask the Lord to forgive us for being contented with where we are in our relationship with Him. We need to ask Him to forgive us for being contented with the sin in our lives, which means that we're contented with the less-than-close relationship we have with Him because of that sin. We need to ask Him to increase our desire to know Him more, love Him more deeply, and serve Him more completely. Jesus said in His beatitudes, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

When we don't have a healthy appetite, we know that we're sick. When we don't have an ongoing hunger and thirst for more of the Lord, we’re spiritually sick! A good prayer would be, “Lord, help us to want more of you!”

POSITIVE DISCONTENT IN PRACTICAL WAYS
Not only should we be discontented with the relationship we have with the Lord, we should experience that kind of positive discontent in all areas of our lives. Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” (Colossians 3:23) This means being discontented with giving less than our best in the work we do, in the relationships we have, or in any area of our lives that God is calling us to.

Very often we settle for less than what God is calling us to because we’re too easily contented! We let things slide.

Take marriage as an example: marriage has to be continually worked on. Fallen human nature being what it is, we’ll tend to drift apart from our mates unless we work at the relationship. People don't suddenly wake up one morning and discover that they're no longer in love; it happened slowly, steadily, and almost imperceptibly. Good marriages are built on healthy discontent: the discontent that comes from knowing that the marriage could be a little better than it is! Often couples let the so-called little things go — time after time, until they're no longer little: they’ve added up to something big.

Of course we need to cut each other a lot of slack. I'm not suggesting that we get picky and bring up every little annoyance, because that would make marriage unbearable. However, it’s important that couples have an openness and honesty in their relationship so that they can share with each other how things could be better. You could call it “tweaking” the marriage, or a “mid-course adjustment.” Call it what you will, the fact is that a good marriage needs regular preventive maintenance — and the same is true with all relationships.

We need a healthy discontent with the way we do our work, with our thought life, and with our attitude. Next month we’ll be celebrating 32 years together as pastor and people. Every once in a while I ask myself, “If I were a brand-new pastor here, what would I want to change?” It's good to have a healthy discontent.

All of us need a healthy discontent when it comes to our church. We should not like it to stay just the way it is. We need to grow more in Christ, to reach more people for Christ, and to reach beyond our own four walls more and more. We can and should celebrate and give thanks for the wonderful church we have. We certainly don't want to become nit-picking and hyper-critical of each other; God, spare us that! However, we shouldn’t be contented with keeping things just as they are, either!

The Lord calls us to do more than be contented with things the way they are, in all areas of our lives. Remember the way Paul put it? “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, . . .” (Philippians 3:12) Life can only be great when we exhibit a divine discontent!