I was in a conversation recently with a gentleman who truly loves God, is a good daddy and all around fun guy. As we talked, he began to tell me how he was beginning to feel unsettled with his job. He had been there 3 years and felt maybe his season was done.
He said he just felt 'restless'.
From there, I talked to another person who described that they were in a church that they had been at for many years. The church had gone thru many changes. Many of their old friends had left and things were 'just not the same'. They were feeling like maybe it was time for a change.
Again, the word came up: They felt 'restless'.
Ironically, in that same meeting, I talked to another elderly couple who attended that same church. They talked about having gone thru so many changes over the last 20 years, people having come and gone. Over the 20 years the church has been in existance they said they had many times felt restless, but decided that for them, they needed to just weather the season and be a blessing and support. It was hard seeing old friends move on, but interestingly, in recent months, some of the old friends had come back, but more importantly, after a long 'dormant season', the church had begun to reblossom and new young people were now coming in. They were happy they had stayed, as they were now recognized as true Elders in that fellowship, pillars who had seen it all, yet stayed as support beams of sort to that church body, offering stability when everything seemed very unstable.
They, on the other hand, had felt that 'restless' feeling many times over, yet had stayed.
Since these conversations last week, I have been thinking about this feeling of restlessness that seasonally comes over us. And it will. Whether with job, whether with church, whether with marriage (that's why they call it the 7 year itch??), that feeling of restlessness and discontent is bound to come up. But here is the big question:
Is restlessness really the thing that should move us???
I don't know if you ever saw the movie "Chocolat" with Johnny Depp and Julliette Binoche. If you havent, treat yourself this week and rent it. It is all about being moved by restlessness. It opens with her talking about this feeling that comes like a breeze over her every so often. When it comes, she feels that restless feeling that its time to move, to change. For all of her life, she went with it and picked up and left, moved on, to a whole new city, a whole new set of people, a whole new occupation, a whole new life.
The only problem is she never let herself really develop roots. At the end of the movie, the wind begins to blow again, she feels that old restless urge to move on. But this time, she doesn't. She resists for the first time, having recognized the wind for what it was and that it had only resulted in a rootless life.
And of course, she gets Johnny Depp as a reward. :)
I know this is a long post, but I never want to live an unexamined life. I think we need to examine what really moves us. Too many people equate the restless feeling with God. It sometimes may be a part of God's leading, but from my experience, it is often not. Its just plain ol discontentment. So people will go 7 years in marriage, get restless, leave. They will go 3 years in a job, get restless, leave. 5 years in a church (that is around the number I have noticed), get restless, leave.
Seriously, if you examine track record, this is many, many times the case. Yet they keep doing it.
Last year I was at a Leadership Conference. Another Pastor in town came up to me and asked if a certain couple were still with us. I said, "Yes, they are. They have been with us now 5 years." He in turn said, "Wow, I am really surprised. They were with us for 2 years, then before that with ____________church for a few years, then before that, __________________ church for I think 3 years. I am really impressed that they have made it with you that long!"
I knew that day the day was coming they were leaving. Track record. Sure enough, they did. Was it God leading? I dont know. It's not my place to say. I just know track record is a pretty powerful indicator of what to expect.
I need to end this. But I guess my plea is to look hard at your life. Like the Juliette Binoche character in Chocolat, is it restlessness that moves you? Or is it truly the leading of the Lord? I have some thoughts on how to discern the Lord's leading, but for a later time.
For His Glory,
PB
