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  “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”
~John F. Kennedy

 

So last Monday I was hanging out with my boy Christian. We hadn’t had a good talk in a while, so we decided to kick it on the couch and see what the Lord wanted to do 

(God tends to make sweet things happen when me and Christian do this, see Life on the Front Porch). 

Once again, God did not disappoint as it soon turned into a big confession and repentance time of the lazy attitudes we had been living in. Honestly, for the last two weeks I had been drifting. 

I was bouncing back and forth a lot from Stillwater, home in Wichita, and Kansas City, and my focus on ministry was definitely lacking. Because of all the travel, my attention began to wonder.  I could feel myself floating throughout the day without much purpose or direction. Most of my days seemed to be over without any sense of accomplishment or fulfillment. 

I wasn’t necessarily struggling with anything specific and I was still doing ministry (Bible studies, meeting with my dgroup, etc) but my all-out joy wasn’t there. Life was just happening, nothing more. I wasn’t naïve to the funk I was in, I knew things weren’t right and I would occasionally bring it up to the Lord, but nothing ever really changed. 

You see, prior this funk life was great. My relationship with God was deep and I was constantly in prayer for the SAE house (Let’s See the Power of Prayer) and the men I was discipling. I was seeing fruit all over OSU. 

I was focused, determined, and disciplined. What I realized though, was that as the semester waned on, and I began leaving Stillwater more often, my focus and drive for ministry dwindled and along with it, the disciplines I had established. As I started looking to the  World Race more and more, I think I began convincing myself that I had better enjoy the comfortable life I have before it’s gone.   

So as Christian and I processed through everything, God began to show me how for the last few weeks I’ve been living this ultra “comfortable” life. 

I live in Stillwater with 5 really good Christian friends. My “job” is leading Bible studies and hanging out with freshman and sophomores. 


I started going to bed around 2 a.m. most nights and woke up at 10 or 11. I had no real responsibility and with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) over no one is expecting me to do anything. Sounds like every college students dream right?

 Well, as nice as it sounds, I knew I was missing out.  Turns out, this life of relaxtion, no stress, and fun is not fulfilling.  God revealed that I was living a life thinking that I didn’t really need Him. Which, by the way is the goal most of us have for ourselves. Think about it, most our dreams include getting a good job that will provide for all our financial needs, getting a wife/husband providing for our relationship needs, and finding a nice church to provide for our spiritual needs. Basically we hope to attain a life where we don’t actually need God.          

So bam, my mind starts racing around to all the best times in my life. And what do you know, everyone of them was when I was pressed into the Lord, leaning fully on His love and provision. 

I even remembered a story about some missionaries who were captured and held hostage in Afghanistan. Once they were freed, they often asked each other, “Don’t you just wish that sometimes we could go back there?” Here were men who were starved, tortured, and beaten wishing to go back to the very same circumstances! Why? Well the only way they could survive that environment was to press into God in a way they had never done before. To truly 100% depend upon God every second of everyday. 

The kind of intimacy with the Lord they encountered was the most incredible experience of their lives. So much so, that they wished to leave their safe and comfortable lives to go back into imprisonment if only they could taste the goodness of God in the same intensity they had experienced. 

Fish Out Of Water: DOA by PJ Taylor Photo.
 

That story makes so much more sense to me now. God really created us to be 100% dependant upon Him. Our experience as His creation will be maximized if we live within the parameters of our createdness. 


Like if a fish tries to live out of water, it won’t experience much life right? Or if a 5’2″ 125 lb boy tries to play professional football, it is not going to end well for him. 

You see, these two are living outside of how they were created and cannot experience a very high degree of life. It is the same for us, when we do things that oppose our createdness, then life itself is much more difficult and a lot less enjoyable (i.e. flopping around like a fish out of water. No matter how hard you try, things just don’t seem to work…). Well God created us to wholly and entirely trust in Him for every aspect of our lives. And when we begin to trust in other things, and live outside our createdness, well then we reap the “fruit” of that decision. Typically stress, anxiety, lack of joy, etc. 

 

So in the end we have to train ourselves to live lives of desperate destitution for the Lord. Where we realize that at all times we are bankrupt without God and we NEED Him.  

At our best and our worst we need Him.  In comfot and discomfort we need Him.  In plenty and want…we need Him. We gotta stop straining to achieve a life where we think we won’t need God anymore, and instead press into God with our whole being.  The truth is, even in the midst of abundance we need God just as much as when we are living in scarcity. 

See, subconsciously I decided that since this time of discomfort was going to happen on the World Race, then I should check out until then and enjoy the “comforts” that I have now. BUT THAT LOGIC DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! 

If I know that life, joy, and satisfaction comes from God, why would I choose to do things that make me less reliant on Him and instead on myself and the nice things around me?

Friends, let’s stop and look at our lives. Are we living in such a way that we don’t really need God? I’ll give you a hint, if you go throughout your entire day and don’t earnestly seek out His presence, then you probably think you don’t need Him very much.

 I’ll be honest, this was definitely me these past few weeks, and many more times throughout my life. And from first hand experience, if you don’t need the God of the Universe very much, well then, you definitely aren’t experiencing the incredible abundant life that He is offering. 

A life of joy, purpose, peace, excitement, fulfillment and satisfaction. Everything good comes from God. EVERYTHING. If we want to experience something good, we should probably press into Him. 

Sometimes we press into God and experience His love and intimacy.  But then sometimes it’s hard to press into God on our own and we need to put ourselves in an environment where we have to.  

What could you do that would make you “uncomfortable?” What could you do that would make you cry out to God and say, “Father, I need you.” What could you do that would allow you to live inside your createdness, and jump unconditionally into the loving hands of our Father?