I know about the other false gods – such as lust, money, possessions, power and pride.
But COMFORT? I never thought of COMFORT as a false idol.
We spend our days trying to be comfortable, to get to the point when life feels easy and routine, when we’ve “got it made.” We want to reduce the drama in our lives by having the perfect house, the perfect spouse, the most beautiful children, and the coveted work promotion. We long to be “comfortable.”
We see a different picture in Scripture where Jesus asks us if we are willing to take risks that make no sense: to give away our riches, abandon our families, turn away from lavish lifestyles, to have the faith to walk on water. Jesus asks us to be UNCOMFORTABLE.
Preparing us for our first trip to South Africa in 2007, Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “I will show you things that will horrify you about Apartheid and the conditions that some people live in. I will show you what poverty and illness look like. My goal is to make you UNCOMFORTABLE. When you are UNCOMFORTABLE you become indignant about injustices in the world and passionate about making changes to help restore God’s kingdom.”
We need to be UNCOMFORTABLE enough at a minimum to do what the world expects - to do everything that God asks.
We need to be UNCOMFORTABLE enough to talk about our faith in our workplace, to teach a Sunday school class when we don’t feel gifted to teach, to volunteer in the nursery when we don’t know anything about children, and to go to South Africa when we’ve never traveled abroad.
God doesn’t want us to be irresponsible. We still have to pay our bills, take out the trash every Friday morning and get to work on time. But when we trust that God has a plan for us and it is perfect, we no longer see UNCOMFORTABLE events in our lives as disruptive or inconvenient. Instead, we become a free spirit, trusting God for all things.
I pray that you stretch out of your “comfort zone”, listening to God’s voice and taking risks with Him.
(Excerpts from a sermon by Rev. Marcia King, St. George’s Episcopal Church, on March 10, 2011)
Blessings,
Agatha