Beyond The Comfort Zone

With the danger of showing my complete lack of pop culture, I will post this anyway. Recently at some training I was sharing some of my story. I was sharing how much I am just an ordinary person that for some reason God has called to something much bigger than myself. In many ways I feel like the wrong person for the task but I am willing to answer the call. As I shared someone suggested I read The Hobbit. So I check it out from the library and on the front cover it says, “Now a major motion picture.” I had no idea. After some research I found out that there are actually three movies, and they were quite popular.

So I read the book. It was ok if you like that sort of thing and I have a feeling that most people reading this have already read the book or seen the movie so you have your own opinion. And this is not a review just an observation. Bilbo, an ordinary hobbit, not looking for adventure, finds himself on a crazy journey. He feels he doesn’t belong. He is not adventurous. He is not talented. He is not magical. Yet for some reason he is needed. As the journey unfolds he often finds himself in difficult situations. Hard pressed on every side yet not crushed. How? Fate? Luck? And over and over in the situation he does the same thing, he dreams of being home in his hobbit hole where all is safe and sound.

Are we not in many ways the same? God wants us to live beyond ourselves, beyond our comfort. It is at that point that we shine and He shines even more. We often don’t feel like the right person for the adventure or calling. We rationalize, “that is for someone else,” Or “that is not my job,” Or “I am not called to that.” But the truth is it is only in such situations that we grow. That we see God come through in amazing ways and are strengthened in our faith. 

The adventures are good. They push us and challenge us. Yet we dread them. We withdrawal. And when we are hard pressed on every side we just want to go back to the hobbit hole. This is me. Whenever the rubber hits the road I am the first person to say, “why did I do this, I wish I was back where everything is comfortable.” I have said that already on this journey multiple times. But I am reminded that without being without getting out of my comfort zone, nothing ever changes.

Overall I was not overly impressed with the book. But the last paragraph is the best. Bilbo and Gandalf are reflecting on their journey. I will paraphrase Gandalf’s words: do you think this journey was about you, do you think that it was luck? After all you are just a small hobbit in a big world. The same is true for us. This journey we call life is not about us. After all we are just small people in a big world. This begs the questions: why are you here? What is your purpose?

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. – 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

~Josh