A needed discontentment

“Ten minutes of talking time?”Always said by one of us with just a hint of desperation.

A guarded routine that we’ve added somewhere along the way —at some point in the evening Zach and I slip up behind closed doors for just ten minutes of uninterrupted conversation.

A sigh of relief.

A moment to reconnect.

A pause before the evening activities.

Sometimes the conversation flows deep, other times we run through the logistics of the day and form a plan for the coming hours, still others are dedicated to unraveling the tension that has somehow built up between us.

Tonight’s topic - the reality of living Spirit-led.

I share a page from the book I read earlier in the day. He shares thoughts from many books listened to in recent days.

Good books fuel good conversation, especially within marriage.

His eyes fill with tears as he conveys his thoughts —what if there’s more?

What would it really be like to live all out for Jesus? Not just a life like others with a label slapped over top, but an altogether different way.

Isn’t it what we’re called to?

Aren’t those who asked the questions the very ones who seem to have found the secret?

I’ve recently read words on doing the Lord's work in the Lord's way and I’m caught amazed—how often I adopt the world’s methods to bring influence, hoping for spirit-filled results.

Perhaps this world doesn’t need more influencers using their platform but rather instead, a band of believers who don’t give thought to platform and algorithm and instead give of their time to prayer closets on bended knees.

We may see a small shift from worldly methods turned spiritual, but I wonder at the transformation when we give ourselves to the Lord's work using only the Lord's way.

Why should we think that the world has it better?

And so we once more ask a question common to our lives, both as individuals and now within a marriage covenant —is there more that we’re missing out on?

The answer will always and forever be yes.

This is why we must be moved forward, compelled by the question.

To live as C.S. Lewis would say—with a deep yearning for an altogether different world, because that’s what we’re made for.

Further up and further in ought to be our theme, my friend!

I move the baby to my shoulder and gently pat his tiny back as we shift the conversation—because to be Spirit-led requires a transformation of the practical rhythms as well.

To increase times of prayer requires a freeing of space, time and cultivating a real habit.

So what will we do? How do we make the needed shifts and transitions to get more of this life we were always made for?

We still turn this around in our minds. We still have far to go.

But let me today invite you into this one simple question —could there be more of heaven's joys than what you are tasting today?

And what is it that could keep you back from the riches of heaven being unleashed in your life?

We walk this road together, my friend!