July 2020

Our comfort zone can look like many different things. As most of you know we came out of a big comfort zone when we moved to Jamaica. Our recent trip home was a friendly reminder of some of those comforts we had forgotten and missed. Some of those were simple things like time with family or maybe even a familiar place to eat. For me my precious comfort zone included my “man cave” which was really just a garage turned into a pretty impressive workout area. It also included my Harley motorcycle which I was reminded how much I miss (thanks Faron Travis for letting me take yours for a spin). I could keep going with the usual bed and recliner and so on. But I believe God often calls all of us out of our comfort zone. And I don’t mean he’s calling all of you to Jamaica like He did us. But I wonder how many have become so comfortable that God really can’t use us much anymore. God has not called any of us to a life of comfort and ease. The “easy button” is so tempting but it is often the one God wants to steer us away from.

 I will freely admit to being pulled towards comfort. I’m no different than you. I am writing the bulk of this from onboard a plane headed to Jamaica. I am anxious about how difficult it will be to get back in. I am anxious about having to quarantine for 14 days. I’m anxious because we just found out before we took off that the NACH van is not running and we had planned to use it today. I want things to be easy. Who doesn’t? Jennifer’s family recently paid for air conditioning (which we use only at night) to be installed in our bedroom at the mission house. My first thought (after my feeling of dying and going to heaven) was “wow we need this in the living room.” Ha. Then I thought again. If I had it in there I might never come out and do what God had called me to do and my time in Jamaica would be a waste. 

Is it a sin to enjoy comfort and ease? I don’t think so. But we need to be reminded of why we are here on this earth. It’s not so we can become more comfortable. In our recent meeting with our mission board something Pastor Archie said was a good reminder. I will paraphrase here, but he basically reminded all of us why we are in Jamaica. We are here for Kingdom purposes. We are here for Gospel reasons. We are here to bring light into the darkness (he didn’t say all that but that’s what he meant. Ha). Even if we come to Jamaica and we suffer and get out of our comfort zone, if we aren’t doing it to further His Kingdom then we have missed it and we might as well have stayed in our recliner with the A/C set to COLD. 

You may be thinking well it’s all good for you to preach to us Mr. missionary man. But that’s just not me. I’m not the adventurous type. Trust me, neither am I. Oh we have done some incredibly stretching adventures in the past few years but that’s not my nature. My wife and daughter had to convince me to go with them on a month-long mission trip. And there have been many other times recently where God has had to stretch me, sometimes kicking and screaming. So don’t think we have it all figured out. We don’t. We just know we are called to be obedient even when it’s tough. 

What about you? Are you too comfortable? Only you and God can answer that. But let me encourage you to step out. Talk to someone about Jesus even if you’re scared. Reach out and do some act of kindness to someone in need. Be willing to be uncomfortable for Jesus. Life is short. Don’t wait. After all, you can spend an eternity in comfort and rest once your time on earth is done.