This year Fiducia is calling you to be comfortably uncomfortable with us. I believe it’s where we grow. More on that in a second. First, I must ask, what makes you feel uncomfortable?
Is it the person next to you at church that dances and sings extremely loud?
Is it feeling the tug to invite a neighbor to church after you keep bumping into them?
Or maybe it is having that difficult conversation with your spouse about why you’ve been distant lately.
It’s different for everyone, but the truth is that most of us don’t like being uncomfortable. We spend the majority of our lives seeking comfort. I mean, who doesn’t like to be comfortable? We have our nice comfortable house in our nice comfy neighborhood. We drive our kids to their highly rated schools then onward to our comfortable job with great benefits including that really comfortable retirement package. Then we go online to check our bank account and take a big sigh of relief.
We love to be comfortable, don’t we?
But, here’s where it gets tricky:
I’m convinced that if you follow Jesus, He will invite you to leave your comfort zone. Or to put it in other terms, I believe as Christians we must get comfortable being uncomfortable.
When I read Scripture, I see all kinds of places of discomfort. Here are just a few: Moses having to go before Pharaoh, when David approached Goliath, Daniel joining the den of lions, Stephen speaking to the Sanhedrin, and Jesus in His final days leading into persecution. And those are just off the top of my head. The reality is that the Bible is full of circumstantial stories that would make any of us feel uncomfortable. The interesting part is that each one of these examples has a character that pushes through the discomfort despite knowing what the outcome might bring. So the real question then becomes for us is: Why and how were they all able to push through? Well the truth is, we won’t fully understand why and how, but we can come to a decent hypothesis. I believe they could each embrace this level of discomfort because they were each walking with the Spirit of God, and this God of comfort gave them an overwhelming sense of peace despite their circumstances. Were they super human? No, not at all. Actually, they were fully human while fully dependent on God.
Check out what Jesus said to Ananias as he’s telling him to pray over Saul from Tarsus: “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
You read that right… Saul, soon to be Paul, is about to encounter an extraordinary level of discomfort. What does he do? He wrestles with it. He prays about it. He leans in!
When it comes to your faith walk this year, Fiducia is inviting you to lean away from your comfort zone and lean far into areas of discomfort. Embrace a dependence on God through His Spirit. He will provide a place of peace and comfort despite your situation. On the other side of this discomfort is Kingdom breakthrough. It’s where we see transformation; both for you and for others.
This is where the greatest stories are told. We must lean in.
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