Moving Out of the Comfort Zone

          This past week our students concluded their series entitled Collide.  Here is a snapshot of this series, “Ask anyone who's ever run into a sliding glass door that was closed, or went for the same baseball as a teammate, or experienced a fender bender at a stoplight-a collision changes things. Whether it's a bump on the head or a cracked bumper, something is not the same as it was before. The same thing happens when we collide with God or His truth or even other people. We're changed. But unless we put ourselves in a position to collide, everything will stay the same. So are you ready to change, are you ready to collide?”

Each week includes a discussion question/point that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle through together.  The third week’s discussion question reads as follows,   As a Christian, is there something you feel like you should do, but for some reason-fear, uncertainty, discomfort – you’re reluctant to do it?  How can you push yourself out of that comfort zone and make it happen?

            Throughout my lifetime my parents had several conversations that I simply didn’t understand.  They would try to teach me what was right and wrong, how to live my life, and even help guide me through some challenging decisions.  However, despite their best intentions my stubborn ways always seemed to triumph, usually forcing me to learn lessons the hard way.  I recall several times that my parents tried to have a conversation but I simply disregarded their input and went on my own path. 

As a parent now I am finding it interesting to see the need to have those special conversations with my children with the hope that they will turn out alright, make good decisions, and have a good life.  Even though these conversations seem to be instigated mostly by the parents, there are some times that the “challenging” conversations need to be turned around.  There was one such occurrence that I recall from my freshman year of college that forever changed the relationship between my father and I.  This conversation was something that was difficult, challenging, and honestly I was reluctant to have it initially but it was a conversation that needed to happen.

Before I continue I feel that it is necessary to set the stage of this conversation.  As a freshman at a private Christian college I was looking at things through some new lenses.  I was being challenged in my faith by our professors, staff, and my peers.  I began to find myself understanding new characteristics of God, taking big steps along my faith journey, and discovering what it meant for me to be a Christian.  After the first few months of college I was feeling great and then we hit our spiritual renewal week.  This was a week where we had special speakers, extra chapel sessions and usually were “pushed” out of our comfort zones.  It was during my first spiritual renewal week that the uncertainty, discomfort, and even fear began to creep into my relationship with my dad.  While my father always supported me, came to my events, and was a constant voice in my life there was still one area of my life that I was unsure about, which was his faith journey.  During my first spiritual renewal week, I remember the speaker challenging us to share our faith, especially with those that we love the most to ease our fear about their eternal destiny.  As I listened to him speak I knew that my dad went to church every week, prayed, and even helped others but had he given his life to God completely?  This was something that I was unsure of.  Normally, I would have felt alright with not pursuing this conversation but a few months my dad had encountered a battle with cancer that could have ended his life.  Thankfully, God healed him but I was still unsure about his spiritual well-being.  On a Tuesday night I found myself calling my dad, in tears, to get an answer to this question.  I remember his reply being short and to-the-point (which is typical for my dad) when he said, “Matt right before my first surgery this summer (as he had two to remove the cancerous tumors from his body), I gave my life to God and fully surrendered every bit of control to Him.”  Those words calmed my spirit and helped me to feel at peace with the challenging situation that I was facing, but even more so changed the landscape for my relationship with my dad forever.  Something happened in that moment that changed the way we related to one another.  Never before had we really “talked” (even though we always talked we never really had those heart-felt conversations until after this phone call).  We began to tell each other that we loved one another at the conclusion of our phone calls, and sought to learn from one another with the desire to have a better relationship than we had before. 

You see I felt like I needed to have this conversation to ease my fears about my dad’s relationship with God even though it would be difficult, lead me to work through my uncertainty and fear but it was necessary for me to have the conversation in order to find a peace in my life.  While the conversation was difficult to have the outcome of having a peace and enjoying a great relationship with my father have been well worth it.  It was challenging to push myself out of my comfort zone but the results of doing so were well worth it.  What situation or conversation is God calling you to have today that may be one of discomfort or even fear but have a great impact on your life?  I challenge you to push yourself out of your comfort zone to face this conversation or situation in order to see the results of what God would like to accomplish in your life.