Comfort Isn't The Goal

I've been reading a book written by Donald Miller called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years", it's a good book, and this morning there was this part about how people in abusive relationships tend to go back to their abusers even if they have the opportunity to get free from them and stay with family or friends, because of the familiarity of their situation.  Even as bad as their life is there, they know and understand what to expect, and they get a sense of control from that.

The dictionary defines comfort as a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety. Nobody wants to be or feel uncomfortable do they?  As human beings, we tend to seek out those things which will bring us comfort.  We work so that we can have the creature comforts of home.  We purchase things that will make our lives easier.  Take for instance, the remote control for your television.  How many of you actually remember the days when you were the remote control for the family?  Sitting there close to the t.v. (but not too close, it can damage your eyesight remember) turning the dial to each of your four channels in hopes of finding something to watch.

Life is not really made to be comfortable however.  If you actually enter into it, and work at it, you will find it to be messy and uncomfortable most of the time.  Think back for a moment to some of the times in your life that you cherish the most; those situations where you experienced the human condition to the max.  Were they comfortable?  Did you feel at the time you were loving what was going on?  Probably not.  But I know from my own personal experiences that those times in my life, when I reflect on them do give me a sense of accomplishment and knowledge that I am in a better place because I entered into the challenge and ignored my desire for comfort.

Thinking about comfort this morning, I remembered the Pixar movie "Wall-E".  Now, I'm not a big fan of this movie, mainly because of the underlying story of how wasteful we humans are, and that we are only concerned with ourselves.  (There is some truth to that, but I go to see movies to be entertained, not berated.)  Yet there is an interesting thing in the movie, and that is how the humans built their space ship to provide all the amenities and comforts that they could ever need.  It was so bad that the people had become so fat and lethargic from all of the comfort that they couldn't even walk on their own anymore.  It's a great picture of taking comfort too the extreme.  I wonder if that is the direction humanity is really taking?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my comfort.  I don't want my life to be disrupted by stress or anxiety, even though I know there are times when those things enter in.  Let me ask you this, how much time do we spend working to be comfortable, dodging the problems instead of just entering into them?  I know it's in the times I experience challenges that I learn and grow as a person.  I can't really remember any times where I actually grew while enjoying some type of comfort.  It may happen, but more often than not it doesn't.

And herein lies the point that I wanted to get across this morning, comfort isn't the goal.  If we are just trying to work more comfort into our lives, we have missed the point of what life is truly all about.  Jesus told us that in our lives we would have challenges to face, but not to be upset by that, but to be of good cheer, because He had overcome the world.  (John 16:33)  Or in the words of one of my new heroes Phil Robertson, be happy, happy, happy.

What I really like about this passage of Scripture is that Jesus doesn't sugarcoat it for the disciples.  He tells them just how it's going to be.  He says, "Listen fellas, you are going to have trouble, just don't let that bother you. I have overcome the world."  For years when I would read this passage of Scripture I would tell the Lord, "Yeah, well that's good for you Jesus, You're not here and I am."  But one day as I was meditating on this, I heard His voice in my heart say, "David, if you are in Me, then you too have overcome the world."  Wow!  That turned my world upside down.  That meant that as long as I stayed hooked up with Him, then I would be able to overcome anything the world threw at me and stay, happy, happy, happy.

What I hope that you have gotten from reading this, is that comfort, while a good thing, is not the goal.  We should enter into life, experience all that it has for us, using the challenges that we each face to learn and grow in the process and become better people.  Let's get out there and face the world today!  Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!