Why Discomfort Is Not a Christian's Enemy

Today at church, we had a discussion about praying "dangerous prayers."

A few people in the class admitted that they were afraid of asking God to do certain things in their lives, because they didn't trust him. This is a pretty bold and unapologetically honest group, so I appreciated the candor. We talked about how tough it is to trust God sometimes, because it feels like he's less concerned with our happiness than we are. He sees the big picture and is much more okay with pulling us through glass if it makes us a little bit more like him.

I got to share at the end of the discussion and said something that had been on my heart for awhile: "Our lives aren't that great that we should want to do without discomfort." In other words, life is kind of bland and meaningless without some danger.

We need to stop believing that God's best plan for our lives is for us to be comfortable. It's not.

I'm at a point in my life where I'm sensing a lull in my spirit, that all the colors are beginning to turn gray again. Times like these put a stirring in my spirit, and I call out to God, asking him to introduce a little discomfort in my life, something to upset my neat and ordered plan so that I can need him once again.

It's a big challenge in America - this comfort addiction. That's not to say that God doesn't bless us with warm houses, good food, comfy sofas, and so forth, but the point at which we trust more in the blessings than in the One who blesses is the point at which we should be prepared to lose it all.

I don't know how all this works - that is, why some people's lives seem dandy and others are really terrible. All I know is that the best Christians I know - the people who really take Jesus at his word and are living fruitful lives - believe in this concept of inviting the Holy Spirit to mess some things up. In fact, they embrace it.

I think that I'd like to do that, too.

Now, we don't always know what we're getting ourselves into, like my friend Caroline who saw the kingdom of God come with power in a Peruvian refugee camp over a year ago (read the story here), but I think that we should be okay with giving up our comfort for something so much better - namely, abundant life.

Like anything, though, we have to realize that the best things in life (even eternal life) don't come free. We've got to give something - in this case, it's ourselves. Our rights. Our privileges. Our wants. All so that we can see a new kingdom, a new order, a new way of being human (as Switchfoot might say).

I'm just desperate enough for such things to pray the kind of prayer that says: "Lord, disrupt my comfort, so that your kingdom can come and I can be a part of it..."

Are you?