Comfort Does Not Equal the Solution

 

This morning, I am running late - way late.  As in dead asleep - didn't wake up until LATE - late.

I made my morning keto coffee (in my Dallas Cowboy - go Cowboys!) Tervis mug and did all the morning things I normally do.  Check the washer and dryer.  Check.  Check the dishwasher.  Check.  Feed the dog.  Check.  Fill the cat dishes.  Check.  Turn over the outside and other inside lights not needed.  Check.  Open laptop.  Check.

...and then, here I am - sitting in a dark family room, illuminated by only a few remaining, undecorated Christmas alpine trees, a few minutes before I need to leave for work.  When I should be getting ready,  I am writing.  Lucky for you ...and for me.

It's been a week or so.  I haven't felt much to read or search to read.  I haven't felt much like speaking.  To anyone.  Just been mudding through the after-Christmas blues.  Taking down (90%) of the Christmas decor and lights (leaving up a few to keep my spirits bright); feeling the cold of the season; and just all around a general blue feeling.

Maybe it's the season.  Maybe it's just what comes with January.

I want comfort.  I want to be free of debt.  I want to earn more money.  I want to be comfortable and if I am comfortable, I will be happy.  Right?

Isn't that how we are trained and brought up to think?  We do it so casually and without thought, that it eventually (and suddenly) becomes a norm to us.

And then this, from today's reading:

"We think we want comfort in the I-don’t-know times of life. But comfort isn’t a solution to seek; rather, it’s a by-product we’ll reap when we stay close to the Lord."

Whoa.

Read that again.

"We think we want comfort...but comfort isn't a solution to seek...it's a by-product..we'll reap when we stay close to the Lord."

Um, okay.  Let me take a second and wrap my little, finite mind around that thought.  So, I don't really want comfort and I shouldn't really be seeking it?  I should be wanting Jesus and seeking Him?

How can something to profound and so simple, be so true and so overlooked?

I'll tell you how.  It's called the world.  We get wrapped up in our massive To Do lists, the conversations inside our bubble, the bills that come in each day, and everything else knocking on our doors.

Thank you Jesus (and Lysa) for your simple truths this morning.  I needed to hear them this morning before heading out into the world (and cold)!

"The crucial detail for us to have peace in the middle of everything we face is to stay close to the Lord."

I guess I am changing my perspective on this (very) late morning.  I'm going into the day seeking Jesus and not comfort.  

I hope this little, short post today helps you take a second to breathe in for five seconds and breathe out for five seconds.  Lower your stress.  Regroup.  Refocus.  And remember, do not seek comfort today.  Go and seek Jesus.  The giver of comfort.

Happy Tuesday my friends.  We are two days in with three to go!

What If I Want My Happily Ever After Now?

Certain. Comfortable. Predictable.

These are all words I long to use to describe my life. My normal.

I suspect you’d be okay with these being the defining terms of yours, as well.  

But the Lord makes it clear in His Word that things will not always go as we wish they would in this life between two gardens:

In this world you will have trouble. (John 16:33)

Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12)

Can I be honest? All this trouble gets exhausting.

Walking in the “I don’t know” is scary. 

And that’s where we get weary and the tentacles of the fear of the unknown can have strangling effects on us.

Fear seems to be a close cousin of disappointment. They are related, because we feel them so deeply, they paralyze us so easily, and the pat answers so many Christians try to place on them trip us up. We are desperate to make things easier than they really are. 

I get it.

But in this life between two gardens that’s just not how most things work out. We get through one disappointment and then another comes. And another.

We all keep thinking, if we can just get through this circumstance, then life will settle down and finally the words happily ever after will scroll across the glorious scene of us skipping happily into the sunset.

But what if life settling down and all your disappointments going away would be the worst thing that could happen to you?

What if your “I don’t know” is helping you, not hurting you?

What if your “I don’t know” is helping you let go of things you aren’t supposed to know, because that knowledge would be too heavy a burden for today? But the One you do know, the Lord, is so perfectly capable to bear it all.

Remember those verses we just read about troubles? Here they are again in the context of the full passages:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33–34)

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12–13)

The crucial detail for us to have peace in the middle of everything we face is to stay close to the Lord.

We think we want comfort in the I-don’t-know times of life. But comfort isn’t a solution to seek; rather, it’s a by-product we’ll reap when we stay close to the Lord."