Today’s Diagnosis: Restless Heart Syndrome (RHS)
This month, when many churches have a stewardship focus and as we approach Thanksgiving and the holidays, I thought it might be appropriate to draw from my little book, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. —Adam ~~~~~ In the last post, I wrote about the temporary nature of this world and our struggle between believing Jesus’ words that our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions and living as if they do. I also introduced another dangerous condition that I believe afflicts us all: Restless Heart Syndrome (RHS). Perhaps you’ve heard of restless leg syndrome (RLS), a condition in which one has twitches and contractions in the legs. Restless Heart Syndrome (RHS) works in a similar way, but in the heart—or soul. Its primary symptom is discontent. We find that we are never satisfied with anything. The moment we acquire something, we scarcely take time to enjoy it before we want something else. We are perennially discontent. This is the nature of RHS, and it is a syndrome that, if left unchecked, can destroy us. Now, there is a certain discontent that God intended us to have. God actually wired our hearts so that they would be discontent with certain things, causing us to seek the only One who can fully satisfy us. God wants us to be content with certain things and discontent with others. The problem is that we tend to get them confused. We tend to be discontent with those things we are supposed to be content with, and content with those things we are supposed to be discontent with! James Mackintosh, the great Scottish philosopher and politician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, said this: “It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.” In other words, it is a positive motivator to be discontent with our moral character, our spiritual life, our pursuit of holiness, our desire for justice, and our ability to love. These are areas in which we should continue to grow and improve, for we are meant to become more than we are today. We are meant to yearn to know God more, to cultivate a deeper prayer life, to pursue justice and holiness with increasing fervor, to love others more, and to grow in grace and character and wisdom with each passing day. The problem is that we tend to be content with our involvement in pursuing justice in the world. We tend to be content with our level of righteousness—sometimes being self-righteous. We tend to be content with how much we love others. We tend to be content with our relationship with God. We tend to be content with how often we read the Bible and pray. Generally, we are satisfied with those things that deserve more of our time and attention. Likewise, those things we should be content with are the very things we find ourselves hopelessly discontented with. Most of us, for example, experience discontentment with our stuff—our homes, cars, televisions, gadgets, clothes, and a whole host of other things. We buy our dream home, and two weeks later we notice that the kitchen isn’t quite right and the appliances really don’t meet our needs and the builder’s-grade carpet isn’t quite nice enough. This is what our discontent does to us. Sometimes I think God must look down on us and feel the way we feel when we give someone we really care for a special gift and he or she asks for the gift receipt. God must look at us and think, What is it with these people? I give them all of this, and they keep asking for the gift receipt. It’s as if we’re saying to God, “I don’t like what you have given me, God, and I want something else. I want to trade it in and get something better than what you gave me.” Clearly, we have RHS. We struggle with discontentment. So, what can we do about it? Find out in my next two posts, when I’ll share four ways we can cultivate contentment in the appropriate areas of our lives and five ways to simplify our lives.