Comfort Zone

What’s the difference between our ‘happy place’ and our ‘comfort zone’? I thought they were one and the same place, but maybe not. It seems we are allowed, perhaps even encouraged to have our personal ‘happy place’ to call our own where we can retreat from the cares of this world and rest content at least for a while. We can’t stay there forever and we know it, but it is a comfort to know our happy place is there.

On the other hand, we are oftentimes pushed to get out of our ‘comfort zone’ because it isn’t such a good place to be. We need to be uncomfortable to the point of not having one and being unsettled because it means we are not making a difference to people and the world around us. Staying in our comfort zone makes us lazy to the needs of others who are not a part of our ‘group’ or church and after all, we want them to join us. How will others know the truth if we don’t share our story with them? I get that, but…..

Can I suggest that many people have made a conscious decision to change the place they once called their comfort zone, and it had not been a good place. It may have been the only place they knew of where they could retreat to escape from the cares of this world. Maybe that comfort zone once included drugs, alcohol, nicotine, or having a double or secret life. Then having seen the difference a life in Christ can make, some of us swapped our old comfort zone to a new one which really is a comfort, and not just a temporary happy place escape. Why then should I leave the comfort zone which became my much needed retreat and yes, even my Saviour? Is it then so wrong for our ‘happy place’ to become our safe and secure ‘comfort zone’? I don’t think so. You?