Post Lanka

When I got back from my trip, one of my leaders told me that nothing at home would have changed...that everything and everyone would be the same despite my life changing and passion invoking experience.

I thought I was at least a little bit prepared come down from my mountain top experience...

I had no idea it would be this hard to come back to everything I know so well and am so comfortable with. It is so easy to get consumed with getting back into the "groove" (i.e. the grind) of things that it is easy to forget about the last month. Everything in Sri Lanka was the complete opposite of how it is at home. I slept in a tent on the floor for a month, showered in dirty well water, it was 100 degrees with 100% humidity, we were covered in a layer of dirt, bugs and sweat at all times; we ate and drank dirty food and water that would never pass standards here in America; we loved the unlovable, we touched the unclean, we blessed those that persecuted us...Jesus was seen through our actions because the language barrier proved to be quite an obstacle and we couldn't even tell them about Christ.

I find myself completely unsatisfied with my life as I know it. There has been something ignited within me that I can't seem to ignore. God has invoked passion within my spirit that I can't deny and all I want to do is run, whole heartedly, towards those desires He has placed there. The comfort, the pedicures, the nice clothes, my cute car, air conditioning, my comfortable bed, golf, volleyball, working out - all things geared towards me and my comfort or happiness aren't enough anymore...there is so much more to life than that. Life isn't about me and my comfort and what I can accumulate to try and make me feel better. Life isn't about you and your comfort either.

The only thing that matters is God. He is the beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. He is the only one worthy of all the glory and all the praise. Everything is completely and utterly about Christ and the ironic thing is that He calls us out of our comfort.

I think too many Christians are content with being comfortable for the rest of their lives. They are comfortable with going to church on Sunday, sitting in a seat, being a consumer, compartmentalizing their lives from one thing to the other and having no concept of what is going on outside their own little 3 mile radius of their white picket fence in suburbia.

There is a world that is suffering and dying and we, as Americans, have no idea what that means. We have no concept of what it means to be uncomfortable. We have no idea what it means to live in a 10x10 cement room for our entire lives, to live in fear of religious leaders and what they will do to our families if we associate with certain people. We have no clue what it's like to live off of .40 cents a day (maybe) and to never have a car or a computer or a cell phone or a camera or even clean clothes, deodorant, ice and soap.

We don't know what it's like to be uncomfortable and when we think we are, we immediately seek the first thing out there that will give us that temporary comfortable feeling that will suppress our lack of satisfaction for at least a little while longer.

So many Christians pray and pray for God to "give them a sign" or to "send me anywhere, because I will go..." Jesus has already given us the command to "Go and make disciples..." Why are Christians so full of inaction towards the desires in their heart that God has placed there for us to pursue? Those desires are there so that God's plan can be fulfilled here on earth for His glory...why do we no commit to act on anything that will encourage heaven on earth and having the opportunity to live fully alive in Christ?

How comfortable are you?