Blessed Are the UnsatisfiedSýnishorn

The Blessing of Growth

In the 1980s, Japanese business exported a concept originally imported from American business after World War II. Western businesses became enamored with the Japanese concept kaizen, which means “change for the better” and which American businesses generally call “continuous improvement.” Kaizen is a process of intentionally making changes—big and small—to products and processes so they’re always getting better and over time the small changes add up to big innovation. Kaizen holds everyone responsible for continuous improvement—from executives to the people who track inventory and keep the books. Along with its results, kaizen is interesting for what it reveals about the human attraction to inertia. When we achieve success, continuously improving on our efforts doesn’t come naturally; we have to build processes and discipline ourselves to reject satisfaction.

Satisfied people are often self-satisfied people. If our circumstances and our emotions suggest nothing is broken, we think, “Why fix it?” We’re motivated to change when something in our environment, our relationships, or our spirit tells us we need to change—not often because we simply see it for ourselves. 

The ultimate form of personal growth is sanctification, the process through which God transforms us, more and more, into the image of Christ. This process requires our cooperation—obedience to God’s Word and submission to his will for us. And our cooperation begins with desire. If we do not want to be more holy, we will resist the process of sanctification at every step. On the other hand, if we want to become more like Christ, God will meet us in that desire and revolutionize us from the inside out—often in ways we would not have chosen for ourselves. That desire for Christ-like change is a gift from God, but we can choose to foster it, suppress it, or attempt to meet it with lesser forms of growth that are less likely to threaten our very nature. The more unsatisfied we are with what we can make of our own lives, the more open we are to God’s radical work in us. 

Our sense of unsatisfaction can keep us from believing we are just fine as we are. It can fuel a desire to know God more and welcome his transformation in us constantly.