At what point are you willing to lay down your desires for someone else?
There is a lot of talk about comfort in the Christian world today. There are also a lot of convictions about comfort. Before we get too far into this, let me be clear. I like nice things, I like having my way, I like when other people do what I want to do just because it is what I want to do. Basically, I like being me and I am really comfortable in who and how I am. However selfish I may want to be all the time, I can’t exactly go around living my life in such fashion. Clearly being selfish isn’t a good way to live, I think we can all agree on that.
There is this really interesting thing I have been seeing in a different light for a couple of weeks now. This started as one of those things where someone made a simple comment worded in a way which normally wouldn’t mean much yet this time was super profound. Here it is, the simple response, “We are not called to be comfortable but to be the comforter.” As quickly as this struck me like a freight train I just as quickly entered the thought of why did this strike me the way it did? Surely I had been through a similar thought process at some point or at least had the basic understanding of this statement. There was no way this was something as new and as profound as it seemed to be in the moment. Well, new it wasn’t. Profound wasn’t really the way I would describe it either, honestly it was just the man’s broken English putting his thought into the most basic English he knew. So why on earth was this sticking with me? As the day passed I had some free time and this kept coming up. At first I had this really basic picture of symmetry taking something very tangible and depicting this.
Picture your bed and your body rolling around on it all night. Your bed isn’t comfortable all night long because it is the comforter. Yes I just personified your bed. Just wait until I take your personified bed and equate it to Jesus and your salvation.
Once again I let this roll off and moved on to the next thought. It wasn’t long before someone made a reference to a situation which sadly is true more than it need be. Coincidentally it fit right in with this thing I couldn’t get out of my head.
Many psychologists/counselors who don’t center their work with Christ have a tendency to drink heavily because it is hard being the comfort for someone else. Especially in a career type setting where you can’t get away from it, you can’t stop and you can’t seek comfort about it from other people because of laws, therefore alcohol becomes their comfort. It must be a very difficult life; kudos to those who do it and do it well.
But soon after I was left with my thoughts and still couldn’t see what God was trying to say through all this, or what I was and had been missing all along. I then came across a blog of a friend of mine in Uganda. She is a much better writer than she probably knows and incredibly wise. I am pretty sure she is a prophet. Anyways, I received a link to her blog in an email and thought I would check it out. It is crazy how God uses some of the most obscure avenues to get His point across. I open her blog and read the latest post. She said something which was clearly the words of God in black and white just waiting for me to read.
This is what she said, “When Jesus healed it was because he was moved by compassion, the miracles he performed revealed his solidarity with the suffering of humanity. The good news of Jesus is not found in the individual miracles he performed but in the fact he suffered with us. Jesus, son of God, shared his presence with us. He relinquished his status as son of God. This was an act of compassion. If we are called to compassion then we are called to presence. True presence requires willingness to take on suffering. It requires we carry other people’s darkest secrets. Full presence is in itself a form of compassion.”
There is so much in these few sentences I don’t even know where to begin. I probably read this 25 times to make sure I didn’t miss something and to make sure I understood it all, which I don’t think I do even yet. After spending some time praying about it and really trying to understand what God has been saying this whole time I saw comfort in a new light. Christ is named the Comforter, which isn’t new. The kind of life he lived in constant rejection and persecution had to be terribly uncomfortable. I mean seriously, crucifixion isn’t comfortable. It was so painful they had to make a word to describe it because nothing else is or was as uncomfortable and painful as the crucifixion. “Christ relinquished his status as son of God” and took on the punishment of sin; death in human form, bearing all of its pain and disgrace to see others forgiven, redeemed, restored and saved. Comforter isn’t just a name, but a characteristic through which we are all saved.
We are not called to be better Christians; we are called to be the only kind of Christian there is, Christ-like Christians. If you are sitting in your comfort, it is likely you are not being a comfort for someone else. Be uncomfortable, it can change a life. Changing the world can happen one life at a time. In fact, changing the world did happen with just one life. So be uncomfortable and try being the comforter.
As He leads me,
Jason
