There are a lot of aspects to a Christian life that people like to advertise to non-believers. Happiness, fulfillment and even comfort are some of the ones that come to mind. Anybody’s who read the New Testament will tell you that happiness isn’t really the focus of Christ’s message and complete fulfillment won’t happen in this life (and why would it? We’d probably find a way to take it for granted in the humanly state we are in) and as for comfort… If you thought any of Christ’s followers in the New Testament were comfortable people, you may need to reread it.
Christ’s message was one of truth and truth is love and love is God. With the right perception, one can be happy in this truth, have a sensation of fulfillment in this truth and take comfort in this truth. This doesn’t mean bad things aren’t going to happen and that we are going to be perfect beings, it simply paints a strong perspective that, when applied directly to your life, is hard to ignore, even in times of strife.
Particularly, I think something that is a calling as a Christian is to step out of our comfort zones– constantly. Jesus calls us to feed the hungry and reach out to the poor, He calls us to visit our brothers and sisters in prison, He tells us to let open our houses to strangers, He at one point tells a rich man to sell all his possessions and follow Him.
All of these things involve initial discomfort. I don’t know about you, but if a complete stranger was sleeping in the room next to me in my house, I don’t know how well of sleep I’d be getting. If I was a rich man and some hippie in sandals came and told me to sell all my stuff, I might feel quite uncomfortable at even considering that.
A driving force in my life lately has been to love. As simple as that, I want to focus my life on loving as much as possible and spreading God’s love to others. This involves lots of discomfort. Even leaving my friends to walk over to people I don’t know at church to say hi makes me feel freaked out and worried I might make a fool out of myself. I have, actually, a few times when I’ve introduced myself to somebody I’ve already met… (Like the pastor’s daughter this past Sunday… YIKES!)
Talking to new people at church is a very small aspect of stepping out of one’s comfort zone, but when we follow some of the more unnerving callings of the Bible, we see that one step out of our comfort zone is another step closer to comfort in Christ.
