I was on my way to work this morning when I heard this guy on the radio say the following: "The greatest danger we face here on earth is feeling comfortable being here on earth."This peaked my interest and got me thinking in two different directions. First, I understand the statement to suggest that we should not get overly comfortable with life on this planet. The whole "this world is not our home" statement comes to mind. After all, we were created to be in direct contact with God. I mean face-to-face contact as it was in the beginning. Our current condition is far from ideal and much less than was intended. For us to view earth in it's fallen condition as our highest ambition is to lose sight of the incredible possibilities that exist for humans choosing God over Satan.
But the second direction I headed was to figure out what it would look like to feel comfort on this fallen planet in the first place. I mean how does one become comfortable?
On the one hand it's probably values based - shifting your morals/values to match those of the world - thereby creating a more "harmonious" existence. But there's also a good chance that comfort includes societies definition of success which tends to be fame, status, wealth, nice cars, big houses, exotic vacations, expensive toys, etc.
And this is where I began to get very uncomfortable. Not because I feel I've become comfortable with my existence on earth, but because I am highly focused on being comfortable while here on earth. Not the same thing, but I'm convinced that it is equally dangerous to the Christian.
Far too often I find myself concerned about our financial success, the less-than-new condition of our cars or our home, the stress I feel at work and our inability to take long weekends or regular vacations. I struggle with selfish strivings to avoid pain, discomfort and unpleasantries. I'm too familiar with what others have and what I do not. I allow my emotional well being to sway depending on some or all of these variables. And I know my spiritual health has suffered because I've allowed my focus to be on "earth (temporal) comfort" instead of "heaven (eternal) comfort".
I assume this is part of the human condition - the struggle of every Christian when confronted with uncertainty, failure, discomfort, pain, poverty, disease or other difficulty. So starting today I will try to get serious about this and focus on the following:
May we hold fast to the One holding us - and take comfort in this first and foremost.
