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It's a Great Place, But...
2 Kings 2:19
"And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren."
One of the things I constantly have to remind people of when preaching revival meetings is that there is no perfect church. One of the stories that I often hear from preachers is how they lost some people because they became disgruntled with the pastor or the church. One of the reasons this happens is because these people who left found out that their church or pastor wasn't perfect. The sad part about this is that many times these people will move to another church only to find themselves unhappy once again because they found the imperfection in the new church. If these people are not careful, they will end up becoming church hoppers for the rest of their lives.
The men of Jericho came to Elisha about a problem they had in their city. When they described the city, they said, "...the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but..." These men found out that Jericho wasn't everything they thought it would be. They found out that Jericho had a water problem, which resulted in them not being able to grow food or crops. Instead of telling the people to move, Elisha told them to stay, but to work on the areas that needed improvement. Of course, the man of God helped with this by casting salt into the water and healing the waters. There are three things we can learn from this story that I believe can help you make your pleasant place of life a better place.
First, realize there is no perfect place. These men learned the hard way that there is no perfect place. No matter where you go, you will find problems. This is because every place is tainted by sin. No matter what church you attend, you will find problems with that church. No matter where you work, you will find problems with that place of employment. No matter who you marry, you will find that every person will have problems that you did not know about. Divorcing who you are married to and getting remarried is not the answer. The answer is realizing that there is no perfect person to marry.
Second, enjoy what you do have. Instead of dwelling on what you don't have, you need to focus upon that which you do have. Too often we dwell on the negatives in our life when there are many positives which we have. Don't dwell on the negatives of your spouse, rather enjoy their positives. Don't dwell on the negatives of your parents, rather enjoy their positives. Don't dwell on the negatives of a church, instead enjoy the positives that your church offers. Don't dwell on the negatives in your life, but dwell on the positives instead. Yes, you can always find the negatives, but you must find the positives and enjoy them.
Finally, work on improving the areas that need improvement. Instead of griping about the negatives, roll up your sleeves and get to work at improving the negatives. You can say, "It's a great place, but..." and never do anything to make it better, or you can say, "It's a great place, but I am going to work at making it a better place." It is a choice that you must make daily. You can complain about your negatives, or you can take the negatives and work at turning them into positives. Instead of griping about your pleasant place, work at improving it to a better place. Most likely that is why God placed you where you are because He knew you were the one who could make your pleasant place a better place. Don't stop at the "but" in life, but work at making it into the place that God wanted you to make it.