As creatures of habit, uncomfortable situations tend to send us on a mad rush to find anything and everything that is comfortable; at least for me anyways.
I have chosen to enter into a year of uncomfortablility and it hasn’t been the easiest.
(*disclaimer I know uncomfortability isn’t really a word but I am using it anyway)
I’ve been quite surprised at my instinctual urge to flee situations when they get super uncomfortable or really hard. But this month it is my goal to press into them: press into the hard things, press into the uncomfortable things, and press into the things that maybe don’t make sense yet. And so far, it’s been, well, pretty uncomfortable…Ha. Go figure.
Ministry this month has been a lot different from the last. We are living in a quaint little village in the middle of Malawi somewhere. (If you imagine the hills sung about in the Sound of Music, that is my current scenery) It’s so beautiful here!
And minus the lack of electricity, it surprisingly it feels a little bit like home. Corn is their main source of income here, so I am surrounded by cornfields (I guess you can take the girl out of Nebraska, but not Nebraska out of the girl).
In the first few days since we’ve been here, I have heard over and over again the Lord say “press into the uncomfortable things.” Not sure what he meant by this at first I was just like ‘okay God, sure thing.’
Little did I know all that was coming
I wouldn’t say that my time here has been bad, just really different. I would say that most the time I have wanted to hole up in my room and wait for the next month to start in hopes that it won’t come with so many things to deal with.
But that isn’t how life works and frankly it isn’t how I want to live my life.
The Lord has continued to gently and graciously push me farther.
When ministry is a little unclear: “press into the uncomfortable, don’t shy away”
When our team is working through things as we fight to become a team: “press into the hard conversations, they push you all towards Christ”
When the language barrier is so big and the only words you know are ‘thank you’ and ‘I am fine’: “step out and try to communicate with that person anyways”
When you go to town and everyone wants to talk to you or sell you something “see them with Kingdom eyes, push past your feelings of uncomfortability”
When you sit through another church service in a language you don’t know: “press into praise, understanding or not you are all brothers and sisters coming to worship me”
Being uncomfortable is something that we try to avoid most of our lives, and we all do a pretty good job at it. But it is in the uncomfortable places that we tend to grow the most. And it is the uncomfortable places that I want to go to this year and see what the Lord has for me.
It’s been cool to see already the things that Lord has for me as I have tried my best to press into all the things that make me want to run and hide.
One of my favorite things thus far is taking the opportunity to read out of the Jesus Storybook Bible every evening to the 150+ kids that sit outside our the door of our house watching the “azogus” as they like to call us.
Had I just hid inside from my uncomfortablitiy of being started at, I would have missed out on the joy it brings me every day.
So as I walk in being uncomfortable this month, will you walk with me? What areas of your life is the Lord asking you to press deeper into?
Speaking of uncomfortable, here’s the thing, asking for money makes me really uncomfortable, but the fact of the matter is I still need to raise around $2,500 in order to be able to continue on the race. Would you consider donating $25 dollars to me today? If 100 of you did that, I would reach my goal of fully funded.
Fundraising is really hard to do when you barley have access to the Internet in the middle of Africa, so would you share my story with the people in your life? I believe the Lord will come through and provide and I would love your prayers of belief too.
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”
Mark 11:24
