Taking Comfort in the Uncomfortable

I don't always know what God wants from me. Let's face it, most of the time, I don't know. But I'm getting better at figuring out when I'm doing something that God doesn't want.

Albert Einstein once said that the reason he was a scientist was because he wanted to know the mind of God. I think that's what we all want. To know what God is thinking, and what his plans are. It always seems like we're guessing. At least, that's what it felt like most of my life.

Throughout my high school years, like many people, I drifted spiritually. I still went to church, and I believed in God, but I could never see him at work in the world around me. I knew people who said that God had "called" them to do something. I could never understand what they were talking about. I had never felt compelled to do something in the life of the church.

That's not to say that I ever felt uncomfortable in my faith. Looking back, I was very comfortable in my slow drift through the motions of being a good Christian. But I never got deeply involved or invested in the ministry work that was happening.

It was not until I went to college and was looking to reinvent myself that I started feeling trapped in my little faith community. I started hanging around the Lutheran Campus Ministry on the campus at NAU. What they were doing was very different; a radical departure from my traditional Lutheran upbringing. The folks at LCM were leaving the building and doing things. My interest was piqued.

Sometime in November, I agreed to go with a small group to go do some maintenance work at a local homeless shelter and then drive down to Phoenix to package food headed to North Korea. I didn't know anyone. It was uncomfortable, but it felt right.

Later on, I went to New Orleans with a group to help the rebuilding efforts. Our living arrangements were uncomfortable. And that's when it hit me. God is pushing us to give up our comforts and go do the dirty work. God wants us to live as Jesus lived. Not a life of comfort, but a life of service.

God has pushed me out of my comfort zone. It's scary, but it feels right. This is the path I need to take. I can make a difference and live a truly Christian way of life. It will be uncomfortable, but the reward - spiritual contentedness - is well worth the sacrifice.