“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” 
2 Corinthians 1:3-5  

God is the God of all comfort, not just being comfortable.  That means God calls us to be uncomfortable at times, not just be comforted.  With God being the God of all comfort; this means that all kinds of comfort will be experienced and must be experienced to grow in life.  I like to think about it with the benefits to our bodies, to our soul, to ourselves as a whole.  When we allow ourselves to face uncomfortable things, we allow ourselves to be changed by and for God.  In experiencing the discomfort, we can gain benefits from it… take cold plunging as an example.  While no one would prefer to sit in freezing cold water, cold plunging improves blood circulation, reduces inflammation, enhances your metabolism, reduces stress, and so much more.  From temporary discomfort, your body can produce long term benefits- just like our relationship with Jesus.  God may push you into doing some uncomfortable things, but this is also creating eternal benefits. Have you ever heard the saying, “obedience brings blessings”?  That’s what it reminds me of. He pushes us into doing things, not just for the benefit of growing His Kingdom, but because he knows there is a benefit to us as well.  God is the God of all comfort, and that includes discomfort. 

As I started growing deeper and deeper in my relationship with Jesus, I realized that not only did he comfort me in ways I didn’t know he could, He also pushed me into more uncomfortable moments I didn’t know He would.  It’s in our nature to stay in our comfort zones.  It’s in our nature to not stir up the pot and to just go with the flow, but what if God is calling you to step outside your comfort zone?  What if God is calling you to trust him with your next steps, even if it makes you uncomfortable?  Will you still do it? 

Following Jesus forces you to die to self and live for Jesus- that’s uncomfortable. The world will give you every “self-help” tip and strategy to look younger, get healthy, live longer, make more money, and so on and so on… but following Jesus tells you to deny yourself… completely contrary to the world. Which brings me to this continual thought that following Jesus doesn’t look like being comfortable all the time. While yes, He’s the God of all comfort- this doesn’t mean that we will be comfortable with every step in our walk with him. He’ll push us the edge and see if we remain faithful and that’s what he’s been doing with me.

All of these ideas sparked one morning when I was having my usual quiet time with the Lord and I felt God challenging me with a very difficult question.  I had been praying over a specific calling I felt God placing me to, asking him to “send me”, but his response wasn’t what I expected.  God responded (not audibly), but by placing this idea of “are you willing to be uncomfortable for me?” on my heart.  When I told my mother-in-law about this specific question, her exact response was “well that’s a bummer”. Think about it… God places this question of “are you willing to be uncomfortable for me?” on your heart and by now I know that when God places something on your heart, your choice should be to listen and respond.  So it’s true, that kind of feels like a bummer to hear. No one wants to willingly make themselves uncomfortable. I’ve come to learn that if God places something on your heart, it’s disobedience to not listen.  It’s a bummer that he placed such an uncomfortable thought in my head because I now knew that he was going to place opportunities in my life that I had to willingly get uncomfortable in.  I knew at that moment; God was going to have me step far outside my comfort zone to follow in obedience to him… and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.  Sometimes obedience to God doesn’t equate to comfort for you, will you still follow? This is where the term “wrestling with God” starts to make more sense.      

So there I was, praying to God for direction, guidance, for him to place next steps in my head… but instead I got “are you willing to make yourself uncomfortable for me?”. Are you willing to make yourself uncomfortable for Jesus?  Are you willing to go against the world to bring glory to God?  Are you willing to be talked about by your friends or family because you’re choosing the “Jesus way” and not the world’s way?  Are you willing to sacrifice comfort for discomfort in knowing it is furthering God’s kingdom?  Are you willing to be disliked by others if it means one more person for heaven and one less person in hell?  In this blog post series, you will hear my personal stories of getting uncomfortable for Jesus, while being challenged to see that this is not a singular calling to me, but to all of Christ’s followers.  This calling of getting uncomfortable is not just for one person alone, but to all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ.  As a follower of Jesus, we are called to get uncomfortable for Him.  We are called to put our comfort to the side and rather pick up a badge of discomfort to glorify God.  We are called to trust Jesus to take those uncomfortable moments and turn them into miracles.  God has always used somewhat “uncomfortable moments” to move mountains, but we also need to be willing to allow him to move in those situations.  So just like Jesus placed this question of “are you willing to be uncomfortable for me?”, I’m posing the same question back to you. 

Are you willing to be uncomfortable for Jesus?  Are you willing to grow in discomfort to save another from the imprisonment of sin?  Are you willing to go beyond your comfort zone to grow in the calling God has for your life? We must be able to choose discomfort, in the way Jesus did for us.  “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25