So, Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock was on London's Red Carpet last week for the premiere of Captain Phillips. And the question foremost in my mind was, what has she done to her nose?. I find cosmetic surgery (for the most part) incredibly sad, and the fact that she now has Michael Jackson's nose (or so it seems to me, see picture) achingly tragic. Who told her that would be a good look? What possessed her to dislike her real nose so much?

Hmm.

Ministers often dislike their churches. There's a godliness in that rightly expressed. Discontent is a good Christian virtue, if by discontent we mean we are always disappointed in what we are and long for what we one day will be. It's part of the process of sanctification. But discontent in church life can also be a good thing. We want people to be saved! We want churches to grow in maturity and love for Christ, as well as likeness to him. We should never be content with what our churches are and should be on our knees praying for God to make his word come alive so that lives would be transformed.

But most of us, I would guess, feel a more godless form of discontent which says "you want to be more like the church down the road [or insert mega church name here]. You want your preaching to be more like [insert superstar name here]. You want a 20s ministry like…. You want a youth work like…." And on it goes. There's nothing wrong with wanting a church to grow. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a better preacher.

But may God give us grace to accept that some things are from his hand. We wrestled with this in our old church when it came to 20s. We just didn't have any. Partly this was local demographics. Partly it was a strong local church that had a core which attracted more. It used to vex me greatly. But then God gave me grace to see that I was called to minister to those who were there, not those who weren't. And I should stop spending so much time worrying about what the church wasn't, and make more of what the church was. That kind of local church contentment is a great thing.

Because wanting someone else's nose always makes your face look kinda stupid.