Outside the Comfort Zone

And a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." And another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own dead."
(Matthew 8:19-22)

We human beings have a habit of establishing comfort zones for ourselves, though often we don't do so intentionally. Sure, we may set up an area of life or home for the express purpose of going there to get away from things, but those may not keep us from living for Jesus. The issue is with the fact that we establish comfort zones regarding what we are willing and not willing to do, which impact our willingness to live for Christ. We establish attitudes and actions that allow us to remain comfortable, and ignore Christ. We may even select places and people that we go to in order to find comfort, rather than seeking Christ. We setup our own "kingdom" to control, as much as we possibly can, the situations that we are willing to deal with in life. Comfort zones are often an unconscious means by which we control our environment and those around us. The kingdom we set up for ourselves is geared to maintaining our comfort zones.

The fact that our "kingdom" includes our comfort zones is revealed whenever anyone intrudes upon them. When that happens, we tend to take a defensive posture. Should someone try and lead us to venture very far out of our comfort zone, say for example to go somewhere or try something that makes us feel uneasy with even its suggestion, we look for any possible reason not to go or not to try it. We have set up boundaries that others may or may not know about. Boundaries, not established by God, but created by us and our desire to remain comfortable. Comfort zones are our "kingdom" territory and enable us to remain in control of life as much as possible.

The problem with comfort zones is that they hinder us from totally following of Christ. One thing we discover about Jesus is that he goes to those who are lost. We see this truth in his taking on human flesh so as to seek that which was lost, humanity. Therefore, Jesus goes places that we would never think of going and he calls us to go with him. He spends time with people that, if it were up to us, we would not associate with, and he invites us to spend time with them. Jesus goes to where the people who need him are. He does not wait for them to come to him. As his followers we are to go where would and spend time with those he would. For it is through his body, the church, and thus each believer individually, that Jesus continues to go to those who need him in the places where they are. Therefore, we are to go to the places and spend time with the people that Jesus chooses. And going and spending time will often require us to step outside of our comfort zones. Therefore, if we claim to love like Jesus and trust in him, we must be loyal to him and his call upon us.

Our loyalty to Christ is revealed in our trusting him to reign over all areas of our life. When called to go, we must go. However, if we are focused on our comfort zones, we risk not going. We risk saying that our comfort zones are more important to us than Christ's calling. So, we cannot claim to be a follower of Christ and not be willing to go where Christ goes, for going with Christ takes us outside of our comfort zones. Likewise, spending time with people who need to know Jesus and hear the gospel message of the kingdom of God, takes us away from our comfort zones. Therefore, as a disciple of Jesus Christ who grows in Christian maturity, our reign over ourselves via our comfort zones must end. God will not share His reign with us. God will not allow us to be loyal to our comfort zones if we are truly going to be loyal to Christ.

Growth towards Christian maturity

Living with Comfort

Our living for ourselves shows up in the comfort zones we establish. We seek our own comfort and safety, and without even knowing it set up comfort zones. We find things we are comfortable doing and we make it a practice of doing them. There are people we feel comfortable being with, and we take every opportunity we can to be with them. Ask us to do something that really stretches us, and we resist. We might even decline an offer by referring to our not feeling comfortable with that. Comfort zones serve a useful purpose for us. We are looking for comfort and protecting our right to be comfortable. The problem, unbeknownst to us, is that to some extent our comfort zones have power over us. We have set up our own little kingdom, which is our life, with our comfort zones serve as our territory. These same comfort zones also serve as our advisors. Are we thinking of doing something? We consult with our comfort zones to see if that is a good move for us. We sit on the throne of our life, in the position that is meant to be occupied by the Lord and consider our kingdom for we are loyal to ourselves. We don't know Christ Jesus and therefore we don't even realize that we are to be loyal to him and not ourselves. We are loyal to ourselves and thus to our comforts, often without even thinking about it.

Challenged to Change

While our comfort zones do have a significant influence in our life, we are challenged to be change from time to time. We may not recognize the Lord drawing us close to himself at this point, but we are aware of the opportunities which we have chosen to decline. We decline them because they would require us to go outside our comfort zone. We may think nothing of it, but eventually we grow in our awareness that we have lost opportunities because of our unwillingness to go beyond our comfort zones. For some of us, we are very bothered by our inability to break from of one or more of our comfort zones. Others among us, are vaguely aware of their influence, but not deeply bothered by their power. Yet, behind the scenes for the person who will grow in Christ-likeness, there is a growing desire to experience change that will ultimately impact our comfort zones.

Willing to Be Changed

Those of us who continue on towards Christian maturity will fine a growing desire to change. The desire itself to experience a change is an intrusion upon our comfort zones since we human beings generally resist change. Change clearly takes us outside of our comfort zones. Yet, that desire is there, though we may not be sure what exactly needs to change or how we would go about seeing a change take place. Nevertheless, our will to change is being stirred. We make seek to make some changes in our own power, and perhaps be moderately successful in bringing some level of change into our life. But it is not until we truly encounter Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can find deep and lasting change. As we get to know Jesus, our desire to be changed increases. We may be burdened by a problem in our life and want to be free from it. Maybe we are in a difficult relationship and we know something needs to change. Perhaps we look at the trajectory of our life, where we have been and where we appear to be going, and we don't like what we see and desire a change. There is something stirring within us. We cannot quite put our finger on it, but we need a change. We may not even be able to explain it or label it, but it is there. Something in our lives, something about us as a person needs to be changed. Not a superficial or temporary change. What we need and really desire is a profoundly deep and lasting change. It is at the point of a deep desire to change that we cry out to God. Maybe we have been learning about Jesus. Perhaps we have no idea who he is. It is possible that we have been in the church for a long time. Whatever our relationship with Jesus is at this point, a profound change is taking place in the fact that we want to change and are calling out to God. Then the real challenges start. God begins giving us opportunities to change. But what is it that we want? Are we looking for our circumstances to change? Are we looking for others to be changed? Or do we ourselves want to be changed? It is in the midst of the challenges that we face that we end up wrestling with our self-will and with our comfort zones. As we choose to be changed, we take steps towards God. We may face circumstances that seem insurmountable, but it is in those circumstances that we make the choice to be changed. To step outside of our comfort zone, even if it is just a little bit, and be changed. For some of us, stepping out of our comfort zone might be admitting we were wrong and that we hurt someone we professed to love. Some of us might have to admit that we have a serious problem or even an addiction. Others may admit that the direction our life is going is empty and meaningless. Maybe it is our values that are out of whack or our priorities. Whatever the cause, there is a deep desire to be changed and an increasing willingness to do whatever it takes for those changes to take place.

Growing in Grace

True and lasting change comes about for the person who is maturing in Christ through the grace of God. By grace, as opportunities for our transformation come about we find ourselves choosing more and more to trust God. We are learning to step outside of our comfort zones. There may even be a comfort zone or two that is relinquished to the reign of God. At some point the Lord confronted us and left us to choose our comfort zone or him. We chose him and find a new freedom through him that increases our ability to ignore the counsel and prodding of our comfort zones. They are losing power over us. In fact, getting outside of our comfort zones is becoming more common in our lives. We may not recognize it, but our comfort zones are shriveling up. We see this most clearly when we look back to who we were in the past. The changes that have been taking place in us leave us in awe of the Lord. We know that it is not our doing, but the Lord enabling us and calling us to follow him. So follow him is what we do, which results in a continuing flow of grace.

Beyond Comfort Zones

As we mature in Christ, we find that our comfort zones have less and less power. Once they were one of our primary consultants, but now we consult with Christ. In time we completely surrender our life to Christ in order to live for him. We have been following him for some time and in doing so, he often has taken us outside of our comfort zones. At first it was a little frightening, but that was because our faith was in our comfort zones. Our loyalty had been focused on ourselves. Being in Christ we have come to see that trusting him is to be our true comfort zone. Every other comfort zone we had erected or allowed to have a role in our life had been usurping the reign of Christ over us. Now we finally realize that we had expected our comfort zones to keep us from trouble, and to give us comfort. But that is not what they did, for when trouble came, our comfort zones could not protect or deliver us. Nor did we find true and lasting comfort in our comfort zones. They could never be our source of comfort for only Christ can be our source of comfort. We had no idea at the time, but now we see that it is by the grace of God that we have come to know Christ and to follow him. He alone is our comfort zone. In him we have peace, especially when we find ourselves in the midst of the troubles of this world. Our comfort zones were our attempt to avoid and escape trouble. In Christ we can face trouble without feeling the need to avoid it our escape it. In fact, in the midst of trouble we can bear witness to a lost and broken world that our true comfort is found in Christ. He can protect and deliver us. Thus, as a mature Christian we move beyond our comfort zones. It took time, but they have lost their power. When we resigned our reign for Christ to reign in us, we left our territory behind and entered into his kingdom. Oh the glory of knowing Christ.