Un-Comfort-Able
Have you ever done something spectacular? Something you're extremely proud of?
Did you do it from the comfort of your couch, at your leisure under the familiar glow of the television?
Probably not.
I'm sure it took effort, time, patience, endurance, maybe even a little pain. I think of races that I've run in, stage sets I've built, events I've decorated for, the birth of my children! All these things that I take pride in took a lot of effort on my end, even pain at times—especially my children! But they are some of my proudest moments. Why? Because I pushed myself. I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone.
God did not call us to be comfortable. He didn't create us to be ordinary. He called us to make a difference in this world—to be extraordinary.
I love to walk and enjoy God's creation. It's amazing the things He drops in my heart as I'm quiet before Him. (He is always speaking. We just need to get quiet enough to listen.) Every day I walk past a yard that looks like a transportation graveyard. An old plane, an old boat, an old moving truck and several old cars. I'm drawn to this yard because anyone that knows me knows that I love the show Hoarders. (There is something fascinating to me about these people. Something breaks in them somewhere and they fill it with stuff. I love to watch their rescue—sometimes. Other times you know the house will look like that again in a month because they never dealt with the real issue at hand. That, and it just makes me feel better about the condition of my own home. But I digress...) Anyway, as I passed the yard the other day, I took time to really look at what was there.
Those broken down vehicles preached a message to me.
That plane was created to fly. To take us to new heights and to new places and allow us to soar.
That boat was made to crash through waves. To take us away from the shore and allow us to feel the wind in our hair and the mist on our face.
Those cars were made to travel. To take us from destination to destination and allow us to create new memories.
Yet there they sit.
Full of rust, mold and Spanish moss. (Probably filled with some scary critters too!)
Wasted.
Oh, the potential that lies in that yard! I'm sure the owner saw the potential at one time, that is probably why he bought those vehicles. Maybe he had dreams of fixing up that old plane and flying it himself. Maybe he envisioned taking his family out on the ocean on that boat. Maybe he wanted to give one of those cars to his kids when they got old enough to drive.
Maybe.
Maybe you and I are like that plane, that boat, those cars. Maybe we have potential lying within us to do amazing things. To soar to new heights. To crash over waves. To travel to new destinations.
Or maybe we're sitting in a yard getting rusty—because it's comfortable.
I'm not adventurous by nature. I like my feet on the ground. I like the horizon in view. I'm the one that holds the stuff while everyone goes on the roller coaster. I'm the one that can't wait until the plane lands safely and that feeling of relief washes over me. I'm the one that wants to get to the destination and can have a hard time enjoying the journey. I'm the one that thinks before I jump—if I jump. Wait, do I really have to jump? But sometimes—most of the time actually, God calls us to be adventurous.
“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus.
God calls us beyond our comforts. He calls us to step into the Red Sea before He parts it. He calls us out of the boat and onto the crashing waves. He calls us to stand up to the giant when we feel small and insignificant with only a slingshot in our hand. He calls us to sleep with lions, to sit in fiery furnaces, to wait inside whales, to build ships on dry land, to march around walls until they fall.
He calls us to be brave.
Why?
To build faith.
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4 MSG)
Don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do it's work. Let what do it's work?
Discomfort.
Not having all the answers, all the provision, all the control, or the perfect conditions. That's when we have to use our faith and trust God. Trust that He will come through. He may come crashing in at the last minute, when we think we're going down for the last time. But, oh, what a rescue!
No one needs faith when they are comfortable. But the Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. Most of us would probably rather be comfortable. (Ouch.) Faith is like applying pressure—it creates a tension. Faith is choosing to press in and trust God when everything around you screams otherwise. The tension is created when your circumstances are opposite your desires—they contradict each other. I want _____, but I have _____ and God says _____. How long do I have to wait, Lord? Why hasn't it happened yet? When you back off your faith and lean into worry, there is a slack created. That's where the enemy sneaks in.
Keep faith pressure applied. Keep pressing in. Keep standing, therefore, until you get what you're standing there for!
Circumstances do not determine the peace in your heart. You do.
Embrace the discomfort. Stare it bravely in the face. That uncomfortable place in between the shores. Where all you see is...nothing. Choose to see the new shore with eyes of faith. Wait expectantly in hope.
Be willing to lose sight of the shore in hopes of reaching amazing new places in God.
The little plane and the sad boat that sit—grounded.
