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Posted By Aaron Marcelli on October 27, 2009

A few days ago I knew I was going to have the whole day free.  After mulling all the lazy and pointless things I could do with those hours I decided to do something I have never done before – read a book in a day.  I know that for most people this is no big deal and it is probably the practice of several of you to pick up a book and sit with it for a few hours until you have finished.  I cannot do that!  I struggle usually to read more than a chapter at a time unless I’m just really into it.  So I have to admit that I picked a somewhat shorter book and took a couple breaks, but by mid-afternoon had read Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels cover to cover.

The book was not as I expected, as I figured it to be about our viewing of the world to cause a holy rumble in our souls so that we fight to stay clean without secluding ourselves.  The book is actually a little more focused than that.  The Willow Creek Church pastor actually begins by posing a question.  He tells of how for months and months he wondered why it is that so many people give of their money and volunteer of their time all across the world for any number of social, political, or religious reasons.  He answers himself by saying that he believes people who do such things do so because they have a holy discontent, which is probably where the book title comes from.

At some point, people who do such things, saw, observed, or heard of something they felt was so wrong, so unfair, or so not what it aught to be, that they were compelled to action.  The book is filled with great stories from folks such as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and even Hybels’ own account of finding wrongfulness in the world and then dedicating their life to make an improvement.  Though there are many injustices that most likely bother us, the book challenges us each to find that one thing that bothers us the most, or find our “calling” as some would put it.  The advice is then to feed it.  Study it.  Expose yourself to it in order to build that passion where it goes from a simple concern to a persuasion that requires no less than drastic action.  People who do such are the ones who make a difference.

The final challenge is to be one of those who live with drastic passion and an obsession to see results.  To adapt that problem as so deep a part of who you are that you provide others around you with more information about it and perhaps a challenge to join you.  We then come to a point where we long so much for change that we are more passionate about just seeing results than making sure it’s done “our way”.  Of course, the entire time I’m reading this I’m thinking, “church planting, church planting, church planting”.  So this book served as yet another conformation for me.  I think it’s written in such a way that it will pull out of you and cause you to think about that one true calling that is in your deepest heart.  That’s why I think it’s a good read for all.

Category: Book Reviews
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