Being "Comfortable"

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God please."


(photo - California Streamline)

I think Wilbur Rees touched on something very true, and yet very uncomfortable here. Well, at least those thoughts make me squirm a little. How often do we want something from God, just not too much, nor too little? We may desire change, but at the pace that we deem appropriate, and only in the areas we deem appropriate. It is hard when living with a self focused attitude to realize when God allows opportunities to come our way for the greater good of shaping us into the people we need to be. In this day in age we often view prosperity, good health, and security as signs of God's blessing in our lives, and question God's presence in our lives when faced with challenges and obstacles. However, it is more often than not, through trials and sufferings that the blessings and growth arise.

It is during those times of tribulation that we are faced with a great decision......trust God and allow the changes He sees important to take place, or resist and go into the pit of despair/bitterness and stunt the chance of any real growth taking place. As I write this I am convicted of the struggle I myself have in areas like this. Not always do I resist, and those times of going through the hardship with trust and anticipation of what is to come, have resulted in a richer, closer walk with Christ, and a lot of greater good for situations that I am in now. There have been quite a few instances where if situation "A" would not have happened, when situation "B" rolled around I would not have been prepared, but it was actually a great blessing because of "A". It seems very unfortunate that we would rather take the short cut around trials only to risk the chance of missing out on some of God's greatest blessings in our lives. We say we want to be like God, yet we resist suffering. We are to model Christ likeness and "he learned obedience from what he suffered"(Hebrews 5:8) so we can expect to learn great things through our suffering also.



Being "comfortable"......is what we feel our ideal situation is. Maybe it is time to let go of our preconceived idea of comfortable and stretch out in faith allowing our "comfortable" to become a step by step following after God in pursuit of His best for us.

"While I'm satisfied with cosmetic surgery, God wants to perform radical surgery."

Rick Ezell