Pastor’s Note:   Comfort

            Comfort is the condition of being safe, undisturbed, and in control, free from pain, risk, or challenge. Really, it is the natural human preference for safety, stability, and satisfaction. Like all the other temptations we have studied so far, our American culture sells us comfort constantly. We have memory foam mattresses and luxury coffee makers. We have heated car seats and even heated steering wheels. We even have a new style of clothing called athleisure clothing, where the clothes are designed for working out but mostly, we just use them for sitting on the couch. We have A/C, water heaters, fuzzy slippers, and heated blankets. We even have the La-Z-Boy recliner, the throne of American comfort!

            Comfort today often looks like choosing what is easy over what is obedient. But Jesus never said, “Take up your couch and follow Me.” He said, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). According to Jesus, discomfort is a primary ingredient in discipleship and comfort is the enemy of calling. God rarely calls us to be comfortable. 

The call to follow Jesus is the call to come and die to yourself and the things of this world, that only offer us temporary comfort at best. Jesus never promised an easy, comfortable road but He did promise us eternal, everlasting life and a peace that surpasses all our understanding. As the apostle Paul said in Philippians, to live is Christ and to die is gain! May we all be willing to get out of our comfort zones and go wherever God says “go,” do whatever God says to do, and pay whatever price God calls us to pay. May it be so!