Everybody has a comfort zone. Being comfortable is something we naturally strive for in life. However is this what Jesus wants for us? Is it the recipe for those on a mission?
“Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” — John 5:2-6
For 38 years this invalid lived on a 2×4 piece of real estate that became his home and his safe zone. Although 8 sq ft is not very big, I think one’s comfort zone is never about the size but one’s attachment to it. I have found that comfort begins to blind, soften, and eventually leads me to complacency over time as it tricks me to defend and protect. And often at the cost of my relationship with Jesus and others. It can become sacred and control me like an idol silently and when that happens it becomes something that I don’t want God to touch.
I say things to myself like;
- I have to work late today because I’m needed on an important project;
- I check emails from my phone when I’m on vacation so I don’t have to fully give myself to my kids;
- There is a crowd of people with whom I hang out with that think just like me so I never gain a different perspective.
One of our basic needs in life is the need to feel safe. Safe feels good. Comfortable feels good, too. And in our need to feel safe and comfortable, far too often I settle for the land of mediocrity. You will never receive God’s best until you become completely dissatisfied with settling for less—mediocrity. We have been influenced more by the world than by God’s Word and “dumbed down” to accept far less than what God has provided. We accept jobs we hate, we deal with friends who let us down and we are afraid to break up with someone out of fear of loneliness.
The tipping point in this encounter is Jesus’ question– “Do you want to get well?”. Finally after 38 years of settling, the invalid man wanted more for his life– He wanted to walk and free himself of his mat. How about you? Are you willing to release your comfort to Him knowing He has your better in mind? Are you believing in the God who created the universe, the One who turned water to wine, and the One who gives sight to the blind or in the man who made your mat?
Question |
What is your mat that God is asking you to walk from today?