Blessed Are the UnsatisfiedSampl

The Blessing of Vision

When I was in high school, I attended a racially diverse school, although the different racial groups did not always mix freely. My experience at church, though, was entirely different. While my family lived in the city, we went to church in the suburbs and almost everyone in the congregation was white. 

On one occasion, my family went with a group of people from the church to serve at a homeless shelter in the city. On the same evening, a group from a predominantly African American church was there serving as well. I remember feeling profoundly uncomfortable as both groups sat in the mission’s cafeteria at the end of the evening, enjoying a time of fellowship and talking about the experience—within our own groups. Here we were, two churches serving in the name of Jesus, sitting on opposite sides of the room and acting as if the other did not exist.

I remember squirming in my seat, looking at the other group and feeling I should break the ice. Part of me wanted to get up, walk across the room, and say hello. To forge a connection with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But I was afraid I would be dismissed or ignored, afraid no one else would follow, afraid to challenge a state of affairs that, on the surface, seemed to be working for everyone else. 

Inertia won. I stayed in my seat. And so did everyone else. And that moment of decision—and the choice I made—has stuck with me ever since. I chose to be satisfied with the way things were even though God was calling me to be unsatisfied—and to take action as a result. 

As Christians we acknowledge we do not have the power to fix the fundamental problem with this world: human sin. We know we’re in need of redemption—and ultimately a remaking. Yet we aren’t supposed to settle for the world as we know it. Human efforts cannot cure all the consequences of human sin, but they can and should ease suffering, bring healing, and stand up for good. As people indebted to grace, Jesus’ followers are under obligation to help. As people of hope, we have no excuse for writing anyone off as a lost cause. When we remain intimate with our unsatisfaction, we expand our own capacity for hope on behalf of everyone.