Truth & Lies Of Being Comfortable

            Comfort is warm.  Fear’s grip is loosened and all appears right with God and people.  The world isn’t as dangerous and the Lord is who He says He is.  Though, just as well, all seems right to a man who has just enjoyed a meal, not knowing he has been poisoned.  In itself comfort is a heavenly gift, but is stained by the human condition, corrupted into an addictive, binding, and inhibitory substance.

            In the hands of Christ, comfort gives life and strengthens heart in trouble and suffering.  Explained distinctly in the fourth verse of the 23^rd Psalm, among more well-known passages of scripture, it says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (ESV). 

Most good things, however, when taken into our own human hands, are tainted – we worship that which is unworthy of praise, and make gods for ourselves out of things that cannot save us.  The real truth of comfort in God strengthens us despite the fact that we are enduring “uncomfortable” times, but the worship of comfort attempts to confine Him to personal agenda. 

A personal agenda of comfort calls for the minor induction of anxiety as an unnecessary experience, and any lack of affirmation as unwelcome.  Whether or not we are “feeling it” is the unwavering, stone-set, judge of worthy opportunities; it rejects mustard seed upon mustard seed merely because planting them requires a step outside the realm of self-pampering.  Incidentally, comfort made a fool out of me – years ago I was told a lie that I would be happy in my own faith, in my own life, and in my own comfort.  In time, buying into it uncovered misery – a fear of being uncomfortable had formed inside of me, a poison for the soul that desires to live for God.

In John 16:33, Jesus promises that being uncomfortable is an experience we will face: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (NIV).

Hiding from being uncomfortable, therefore, is not comfort.  It is a lie from which nothing of meaning is gained; a parasite that feeds on a believer’s effectiveness.  True comfort is never known without trouble, distress, or suffering – through the example of the cross, this is clear.

Grace & Peace,

J. S. Wade