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?

What Does It Take?

... Abraham said to him, ‘If your brothers won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen to someone who comes back from the dead. Luke 16:30,31

It is difficult, and almost impossible to give up sinning, because sin is an addiction. Only the transforming power of God through the Holy Spirit can give you the power you need. Jesus told the true story (it is not a parable) of the rich man and the poor man who died, and the rich man found himself asking Lazarus for help. Firstly for some cold water, because it was HOT where he was, and secondly he wanted to find a way to tell his brothers that they must avoid this hell at all costs. Lazarus had his rest in Abraham’s bosom, but the rich man was greatly troubled because he was in hell. Yes, there is such a place.

Have you noticed that seeing the painful and terrible passing of a friend or loved one, does NOTHING to convince them to change? In fact, even during a traumatic hospital visit where lifestyle excesses can be even more obvious, they do not see the warning in the bed, and if they do, then it is ignored. They will take their chances that this dreadful process will never happen to them. Yes, sin is an addiction, just like drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

Jesus knew that the pleadings of someone who came back from the dead would not make any change of heart or habits, and neither will the sad end of a loved one make others kick similar bad habits or turn from the eternal consequences of sin. Yes, sin is an addiction. So, if watching someone else’s life (and death) doesn’t help, we need to listen to the only human heart that knows how sinful our life is. That’s YOU and ME! We cannot blame anyone else if we end up in the wrong eternity, even God.

Therefore, my beloved… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12