As a mom, I care deeply about my kids' comfort... unless it interferes with their growth or what's best for them. As I think about it, their growth and what's best for them often demands some discomfort from them.
We face it every morning when one or both does not want to get out of bed to get ready for school. Bed is maybe the most comfortable place in this world for them. Yet, aside from a good night's sleep, our best lives are simply not lived while in the comfort of our beds. So everyday we encourage and coerce them out of the warm cocoon of their beds so they can get to school (which brings in more discomforts) all for the sake of their growth and their best interest.
I believe God calls me to the same--getting out of my comfortable places so that I can truly live and love in His name. Sure, for my best interest and growth, but especially to spread His comfort and love to a hurting world around me.
God grants comfort to our aching souls so that we will recycle it for others who are aching.I fully believe this shift in my prioritizing of comfort will all be worth it in light of happily ever after with Him. I've also seen firsthand how getting uncomfortable for God's glory brings what's best for me now.
Some of my best and proudest life experiences were those that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Where my comfort was placed in Jesus, and He moved my feet to places I wouldn't normally go or to speak when I'd rather stay quiet. Planting seeds and growing in His beautiful plan for me.
When I've shown up at places when I would have rather stayed home in my pajamas (confessions of a full-blooded introvert). When I set aside years of reserved shyness and quiet to speak to groups. When I left my high school, home, and country to go live with my friend and her missionary family in Mongolia. When I gave birth to each of my 3 kids. When we've been in need financially or emotionally and God comes through with a miracle.
Even looking back on these experiences, I still somehow end up missing the point when new discomforts come up. When I start feeling the gentle tugging and awakening of conviction in my mind and my heart, I pull the metaphorical covers over my head and say, "do I have to?" and "but I don't want to!" And sometimes throw in the occasional excuse--an adult life version of, "I think I'm sick. I should just stay home."
Still, God is gentle, He is faithful, and He loves me too much to leave me here, rotting away in my own comfort.
That's where I am as I've been reading Comfort Detox (*aff. link) by Erin Straza. I've needed these words along the journey pointing me into the discomfort, reminding me God's there with His comfort and the miracle of an extra dose to share with those around me... all by walking and following out of my preconceived safe or comfort zones.
Being comfortable isn't exactly exciting. ...Yet a body at rest will stay at rest until a greater force comes along and pushes it into motion.God is that greater force, and it seems Comfort Detox is one more force coming along to push me into motion. As I read it, I had all kinds of ideas of what I wanted to share with you and what I wanted to tell you about it. For now, this feels sufficient. It's where I am on my own comfort detox journey.
I'm rolling out of bed (or maybe just still thinking of rolling out of bed?) ready for the beautiful life God has planned out there in the world. Where my plans and comfort and familiar is replaced with His glorious plans, comfort, and unknown. Where He is more than enough for me, and He is more than enough for the hurting world around me.
I hope you'll read Erin's necessary and timely words. I hope you'll be encouraged and convicted through her detox steps at the end of each chapter. And most of all, I hope you'll consider where God is gently trying to wake you up, and call you out of your comfortable life into a big and beautiful world of His plans for you.
Once we start practicing habits of compassion, trust, and humility, our daily lives will shift. Ego-mania will diminish as we loosen our grip on our days and begin to extend God's comfort to others.(Quotes in italics are from the book Comfort Detox by Erin Straza. Learn more or get the book >> here.)
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courage to do hard things
slow reader to book lover
grow your life
*Note: Affiliate links used. Purchases through these links could earn me a small commission with no extra cost to the purchaser.
