Last night I woke up to loud voices coming from my kids' room... I know! Slight panicking!
Their radio is always on KLove at night and it was a little loud, hence waking me up. They were talking about a 90 year old man that had run a marathon. How cool is that?
I didn't catch much else except for something he said in the interview. He said, "You just get comfortable being uncomfortable." I don't know if he said anything else, but that is what I caught while turning the volume back down.
Wow!! That hit me like a sledge hammer! The kind that makes you think when you are trying to sleep, kind.
If you haven't heard all the new stuff in my life on facebook; my husband, Daniel, has been at basic training in Texas since mid April. Our lives have changed drastically and will continue for a decade or more.
The reason this simple sentence hit me so hard is the fact that I have and will continue to be uncomfortable, a lot! This new adventure we are on will require me to move (a lot), meet new people (often), learn and use military lingo (every day), be separated from my spouse (hopefully not too often), and be away from family and friends who have become like family.
None of these things are at all easy for me and the realization of what it will take from me to adjust to this new life style will probably keep me spinning for awhile.
This concept isn't just for what is to come in the near future though. This is totally what God asks us to do every day! He calls us to be uncomfortable, to step out of our safe little bubble of security and reach out to others!
Would you get uncomfortable adding that extra $20 to the offering plate? Do you get uncomfortable talking in a group of other women/men? Does extending that invitation to the annoying neighbor kid make you uncomfortable?
Let me tell you how uncomfortable I am in a group of people. It takes me forever to assess my boundaries. And that neighbor kid,...I struggle with that one, big time! That extra $20 is gas money or to cover grocery overflow. My excuses are always pretty convincing to my own ears!
I am not saying that you should blow your budget. They are important and we should be good stewards of our money. Setting up boundaries when the neighborhood kids come over is a great idea so you know and they know they are safe and can still have fun. Using wisdom with your words in a group setting is healthy and can save some serious hurt, misunderstanding, and just plain averting awkward and inappropriate conversations.
What I am saying is that we are so often trying our hardest to feel comfortable. Everything we do and say are centered around if it will make us feel safe, secure and comfortable. Staying firmly in my little safe bubble of me-ness.
There are times for rest, for healing, and times when we need to be filled up. But Oh Man!, it isn't comfortable reaching out to others. It requires doing uncomfortable things, or saying uncomfortable things.
You know the best relationships are the ones that have trudged through the yucky stuff, the stuff that made us uncomfortable, and stuck with it to see the other side!
Those relationships are so valuable!!
The story of Esther comes to mind when I think of God asking me to do something uncomfortable. She, a young virgin, was taken and placed in a harem with a bunch of other young virgins; all trying to win the affection of the king! Talk about your biblical times, 'The Bachelor.' Only this same king had just cast out his previous wife for embarrassing him while he and his friends were at a party.
Whaaat?!!!
Did she know what would happen to her there? Her cousin, Mordecai told her not to reveal that she was a Jew! That had to have caused some fear! She had to have felt very uncomfortable! She was completely out of her elements!
Yet God used her to save her people, God's people, from slaughter!
Oh, the things that make us uncomfortable! Yet it is these things that help us learn and help us grow.
Jesus made a very uncomfortable decision to suffer a very uncomfortable death to save us from a very uncomfortable eternity without Him!
God doesn't want you to be miserable! But He does want you to trust Him and share His love with others. That means we have to Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Here's to my adventure of being Uncomfortable for God's kingdom!
Their radio is always on KLove at night and it was a little loud, hence waking me up. They were talking about a 90 year old man that had run a marathon. How cool is that?
I didn't catch much else except for something he said in the interview. He said, "You just get comfortable being uncomfortable." I don't know if he said anything else, but that is what I caught while turning the volume back down.
Wow!! That hit me like a sledge hammer! The kind that makes you think when you are trying to sleep, kind.
If you haven't heard all the new stuff in my life on facebook; my husband, Daniel, has been at basic training in Texas since mid April. Our lives have changed drastically and will continue for a decade or more.
The reason this simple sentence hit me so hard is the fact that I have and will continue to be uncomfortable, a lot! This new adventure we are on will require me to move (a lot), meet new people (often), learn and use military lingo (every day), be separated from my spouse (hopefully not too often), and be away from family and friends who have become like family.
None of these things are at all easy for me and the realization of what it will take from me to adjust to this new life style will probably keep me spinning for awhile.
This concept isn't just for what is to come in the near future though. This is totally what God asks us to do every day! He calls us to be uncomfortable, to step out of our safe little bubble of security and reach out to others!
Would you get uncomfortable adding that extra $20 to the offering plate? Do you get uncomfortable talking in a group of other women/men? Does extending that invitation to the annoying neighbor kid make you uncomfortable?
Let me tell you how uncomfortable I am in a group of people. It takes me forever to assess my boundaries. And that neighbor kid,...I struggle with that one, big time! That extra $20 is gas money or to cover grocery overflow. My excuses are always pretty convincing to my own ears!
I am not saying that you should blow your budget. They are important and we should be good stewards of our money. Setting up boundaries when the neighborhood kids come over is a great idea so you know and they know they are safe and can still have fun. Using wisdom with your words in a group setting is healthy and can save some serious hurt, misunderstanding, and just plain averting awkward and inappropriate conversations.
What I am saying is that we are so often trying our hardest to feel comfortable. Everything we do and say are centered around if it will make us feel safe, secure and comfortable. Staying firmly in my little safe bubble of me-ness.
There are times for rest, for healing, and times when we need to be filled up. But Oh Man!, it isn't comfortable reaching out to others. It requires doing uncomfortable things, or saying uncomfortable things.
You know the best relationships are the ones that have trudged through the yucky stuff, the stuff that made us uncomfortable, and stuck with it to see the other side!
Those relationships are so valuable!!
The story of Esther comes to mind when I think of God asking me to do something uncomfortable. She, a young virgin, was taken and placed in a harem with a bunch of other young virgins; all trying to win the affection of the king! Talk about your biblical times, 'The Bachelor.' Only this same king had just cast out his previous wife for embarrassing him while he and his friends were at a party.
Whaaat?!!!
Did she know what would happen to her there? Her cousin, Mordecai told her not to reveal that she was a Jew! That had to have caused some fear! She had to have felt very uncomfortable! She was completely out of her elements!
Yet God used her to save her people, God's people, from slaughter!
Oh, the things that make us uncomfortable! Yet it is these things that help us learn and help us grow.
Jesus made a very uncomfortable decision to suffer a very uncomfortable death to save us from a very uncomfortable eternity without Him!
God doesn't want you to be miserable! But He does want you to trust Him and share His love with others. That means we have to Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Here's to my adventure of being Uncomfortable for God's kingdom!