Review of Bill Hybels, "Holy Discontent"

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Review of Bill Hybels, Holy Discontent: Fueling the Burn down that Ignites Personal Vision.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.

What actually sets yous off?  What are the things in life that really get your claret boiling?  In this short, provocative, and easy-to-read volume, Willow Creek's Bill Hybels uses his pastoral fluency to claiming the reader to consider what he calls their "holy discontent," which consists of a sort of God-given righteous indignation and to channel this discontent in positive directions.  The back-cover blurb summarizes the book very concisely: "Hybels invites you to consider the dramatic impact your life will accept when you willingly convert the frustration of your holy discontent into fuel for changing the globe."

Earlier I proceed with the review I should offer a bit of context.  I saw the title at the bookstore at Gardendale's First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Alabama on July 13, 2008, and it stuck out for two reasons.  First, I had a passing familiarity with Hybels and his ministry.  Second, Gardendale pastor Kevin Hamm had but given a bulletin on contentment based on a passage from Philippians 4.  From the promotional text on the book jacket it appeared that the book would accost a lot of issues in which I am interested.

I institute the book to be both timely and revolutionary.  It asks a set of questions and teaches lessons that are important to Christians and non-Christians alike.  Life is frustrating, and unfocused rage tin be exhausting.  And then how can we channel our discontent in more than positive directions?

Hybels bases his book around a very unproblematic question: "why practise people do what they exercise?"  This is based on a simple observation: people expend a lot of fourth dimension, effort, and energy to alter the world, and not ever in ways that render material benefits.  In the language of the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, people human action in gild to remove "felt uneasiness" or to transform their environment into i that they detect more suitable.

What Mises calls "felt uneasiness" Hybels calls "holy discontent," and he compares it to and contrasts it confronting the spiritual principle of contentment. Contentment and holy discontent are somewhere forth the spectrum between inert complacency and unthinking, unfocused rage. Holy discontent is a motivation to action that is tempered by the Holy Spirit.

Hybels illustrates his points with Biblical patterns and twentieth century examples, noting for instance that Moses became useful to God because of the injustices he observed and could not stand (pp. 20-21).  I should mention here that Moses was motivated by holy discontent, but when he tried to accept care of business by his own ideas and his own methods, he failed miserably, sacrificing his credibility with the nation of Israel by killing an Egyptian.

The failures of our Biblical examples are encouraging, and Hybels encourages us to take God's perspective on our fellow human. Every person should be labeled "work in progress," and it should exist unsurprising (and un-discouraging) when our zeal for God's house issues in mistakes and shortcomings.

To apply a more modern blueprint, Hybels discusses the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. as an case of someone taking something he could stand no more and effecting change.  Even today, people delight in pointing out King's personal and professional failures.  Indeed, at that place was much in King's politics, economics, and personal life that was objectionable.  But the same applies to King David, whose failures and shortcomings are immortalized as part of Holy Writ.  We shouldn't infer from this that God excuses everything; rather, we should take condolement from this in the knowledge that God can use people in spite of their failures and shortcomings.  That Dr. King was imperfect should surprise no one.  That God used him in spite of this to usher in a peaceful revolution in the way the Usa conceives of the proposition that all men are created equal should inspire everyone.

Most of the remainder of the book consists of examples and applications.  He discusses the fire in some hearts for children'south ministry building, women's ministry, poverty alleviation, revival, and other matters.  His give-and-take of children's ministry was peculiarly compelling as he pointed out the workers at Willow Creek who, taking the view that some per centum of the children at Willow Creek on any given Sunday are, have been, or will be abused, seek to provide an environment in which the kids can be comforted, cared for, and loved.  The trials and travails of daily life that seem and then important fade to black when God shines his light on existent injustice and others' hurting.

Hybels'due south goal is to help people channel their deep discontent—and such discontent can exist healthy—into constructive activeness, noting on pages 50 and 51 that at that place has to be a purpose for our lives between salvation and death.  Quoting Ephesians ii:ten, Hybels notes that we are to dedicate ourselves to good works.  This indicate can be summarized in the following passage from page 41:

Truly there'due south nothing more inspiring than a person who transforms something he just can't stand into the kind of positive energy that advances restoration in the earth.  This is what'south at work every time a bank check gets sent from a grateful heart to a worthy crusade, all in the name of "doing skillful" in the world.  Information technology'due south what's at work every time a person steps into a church building or a civic center or a reliev agency'south tent with an "I'g here to serve" attitude—and does so after logging forty or threescore or eighty hours at their "real" job each week.  It's as well what'south at work when that real job is more than than a path to a paycheck; information technology is an avenue for releasing a little pent-upwards holy discontent tension.

Incubating clarity takes fourth dimension, though.  Hybels advises baby steps (pp. 67-68) while at the same time advising a resolute forrad march against the Goliaths of our lives (pp. seventy-71). He counsels a conscientious and self-aware view of the areas where we actually think we need to see change. Rather than fighting the impulses nosotros feel when something really drives us crazy, he suggests that nosotros feed rather than fight the missional feelings that God gives us.  He cites further the example of U2's Bono, a rock star who has no doubt made many rock star mistakes but who shines as a "1000-watt bulb," to paraphrase Hybels, and as a living expression of his faith.  I disagree with Bono nigh a groovy many things related to economic evolution policy, but his earnestness and his willingness to seek out wise counsel (such as Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs) are admirable.

Here I diverge from a traditional review and consider some of the take-home points I accept gleaned from this volume.  Business concern writer Seth Godin has suggested that one should not read a business book without resolving to change at to the lowest degree 3 things as a issue.  Here I repeat this advice.  Holy Discontent is non a business book per se, but information technology is a call to activity.  I would like to combine Hybels'south message with some of the things I have learned as an economist to help the reader formulate an activity plan that can complement the volume.

With respect to skilful works, we should retrieve hard and take a nuanced understanding of what we seek to change. This requires that we seek wise counsel.  I mentioned earlier that I think Bono'south views near the process of economical development are incorrect (and have gone on record to this effect), simply he has done something that few glory activists have washed.  He sought the assistance of the very best; indeed, his human relationship with development economist Jeffrey Sachs resulted in Bono'south writing the introduction for Sachs's book The End of Poverty.  I am more inclined to fall on the other side of the development debate, agreeing primarily with New York University economist William Easterly, but nosotros should all follow Bono's example by seeking to develop a nuanced understanding of the problems we seek to solve.

We should besides "see then that you walk circumspectly, not every bit fools only as wise, redeeming the fourth dimension, for the days are evil," continuing steadfastly in prayer and fellowship (Ephesians v:15-16). The world will fill all of our time with demands on our attending, which means that we will often be tempted to put off the things that are of import in order to have care of things which are just urgent. This suggests two action steps.

We would all exercise well to have an inventory of our commitments and of the things that create in us a sense of holy discontent.  Then we should apply what has come up to be known equally the "80/xx rule," a rule developed based on the writings of the Italian economist Vilifredo Pareto.  Pareto pointed out an interesting empirical regularity: approximately eighty pct of output comes from about twenty percentage of inputs, and approximately eighty percent of problems come from about xx percent of inputs.  This suggests that we should look for and seek to develop the twenty percent of our commitments that create lxxx percent of our meaningful results while discarding the commitments we have that are very heavy on the inputs merely very light on the output.

This requires a degree of subject field, review, and reflection that I, quite honestly, have struggled to implement.  Specially as technology changes and as we become more productive, the demands on our fourth dimension will merely increase.  The temptation to sacrifice what is important and productive in order to do things that are petty and perhaps unproductive can be, at times, overwhelming. Over time, however, we can develop the subject field necessary to change the things that create in the states a sense of holy discontent.
In my estimation, Bill Hybels has written a very important book.  It is by no means a "how to" manual on dealing with holy discontent, but it offers a scriptural and applied foundation on which to build our lives and ministries.  Hybels'south book is short and like shooting fish in a barrel to read, and in this sense it is a literary manifestation of Shakespeare's thought that "brevity is the soul of wit."  The book has changed my outlook on life, and I expect it will do the same for others, too.

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