Valuing Comfort/Risking Discomfort

Note: The following is my submission for the March 2011 Good News, the newsletter of Boulevard Presbyterian Church

I am a big guy. I am over six feet tall and 300 pounds. I have long arms, thick legs, and thanks to football, bad knees. I am the poster child for being uncomfortable on commercial flights. The cramped quarters and little leg room mean that I spill out into the aisle (where I like to sit) with my right leg and its bad knee creating obstacles for flight attendants and antsy passengers alike. I am not the guy you like to see boarding the plane; I am not the guy you want sitting next to you. I am an experienced passenger, and know the tricks; I no longer pray for safe flights. My prayer is usually, “Dear Lord, please let this empty seat next to me stay empty.” AMEN

Being uncomfortable is part of flying; a necessary trial that allows for incredible experiences. Standing on the Great Wall of China more than makes up for the prolonged torture I experienced on Korean Air. 14 hours from Seattle to London was instantly forgotten when I heard Big Ben chime. I look back on terribly uncomfortable experiences of travel and compare them to the incredible adventures they afforded, and I can’t justify limiting any potential adventure just because I might be cramped for 5 hours. Yet many people would decide otherwise.

Fear of being uncomfortable arrests so much progress, so many adventures, so many new and exciting paths to explore before the first step is ever taken. And I am not just talking about airline seats either. Comfort is prized so highly - the desire never to be stressed, to be forced into making new decisions, taking unknown leaps, trusting and discovering on the fly - that many will never abandon it no matter what they stand to gain. Many never jump because they don’t know where they will land; we are afraid of being uncomfortable and it is killing us.

Personally and together as a church, can you/can we remember a time when being unsure of how it would all turn out stopped a really good idea or the possibility of a great adventure? Can we/can you think of something we/you have always wanted to do but was afraid to try? I know I can. I think of what it will cost me (money, security, professionally, etc.), what it will require (trying and learning new things, trusting without proof), and what others will think, and rarely weigh what I could gain. I wonder what would have happened if I went into the Peace Corps instead of teaching for two years. Fear of being uncomfortable arrested my adventure, and I wonder at times what God would have done in my life if I would have named my fears and gone ahead into the great unknown. I do not regret (even in the least) the life I lead, and the path I have taken; it continues to be an amazing ride. I do regret not weighing what I could gain against what I could have lost.

As church and congregation, being uncomfortable is part of being faithful. We are challenged by the Holy Spirit to look past the stone walls of Boulevard Presbyterian and claim flexibility. We are challenged to place our trust in a sovereign God who asks us to humbly walk rather than hunker down and ride out the generations. Fads in culture and ministry will pass, and with them opportunities for new ways of thinking and attracting new members. We can’t possibly participate in each and every one but when something special comes along (perhaps it is a community garden?), we must be willing to claim the discomfort that comes with new adventures, and without all the answers walk in the direction the Spirit leads us.