The couches are uncomfortable.
The chairs are uncomfortable.
The beds are uncomfortable.
Public transportation is crowded and uncomfortable.
Everyone always staring at you is uncomfortable.
Your host family sticking their heads in your room and looking at you while you’re trying to sleep is uncomfortable.
But, Jesus did not call me to be comfortable.
He did not die so I could sit on a comfy couch, sleep on a comfy bed, and go through my life inside my own little comfort bubble. He was not nailed to a cross so that I can go through my life in a state of comfort, stability, and self-reliance.
I do not want to be so comfortable that I do not need God. I do not want to be comfortable if it means I will forget how much I need Him, all day, every day.
Don’t get me wrong, God wants to bless us and he does not want us to be miserable. But he also is not in the business of making us feel good. I think Erwin Raphael McManus said it best when he said, “God is not a drug, and he is certainly does not create experiences and emotions that make us feel better but not become better.”
Yes, there are plenty of things I currently don’t have that would make me feel better. But having those things may not make me become better. At least not right now. Having those things does not make me worse, but right now, in this season, not having them seems to be helping to make me a little better.
The World Race is not a place of comfort. If you think that this journey is going to be comfortable, you may need to think again. I’m finding that change in myself does not occur for the better when I am comfortable. I have a comfort zone. A small one, I’m finding out. And that comfort zone is not somewhere where I really want to be anymore.
So thank you, Africa, for being uncomfortable. And thank you, also, for being beautiful. And for being unexpected. And for being a place that pops bubbles. Because even when I don’t have the comforts of home I miss, I still get to look at a banana forest, and see a beautiful mountain outside my door, and look at faces like this. And then I don’t mind being uncomfortable so much.
