Uncomfortable

Hello, friends! You may have caught on to the fact that last week was a rather uncomfortable one for me. I'd rank it in my Top 5 of the worst weeks of my life. The blows just kept coming. I was searching for something to put my week into perspective when I came across this on my computer. It's the last devotion I wrote as a Lutheran Campus Initiative missionary. It applies so well to my situation that I know it has to be a God thing. I hope it can bring some inspiration to your life as well.

Have you ever been caught out in a storm? It’s rather uncomfortable, isn’t it? It’s dark, the rain is coming down so hard that you can’t see a thing, the water is pooling up around your ankles, you’re cold and wet and starting to feel the sniffles coming on before you even get inside. Now, picture that happening on a small boat in the middle of a lake, and you’re picturing the situation the disciples were in in Mark 4. “A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling” (verse 37).

We have all felt that way in life, too. Whether we’ve lost our job, we’re overwhelmed in our current job, we’ve taken on too many responsibilities, whatever it might be, we have felt drenched and about to be flooded and overturned. God tends to put us in uncomfortable situations. He always has a purpose, but in the midst of the situations, we’re calling out, “God, please rescue us!” And although God never fails to rescue us, he does even that in uncomfortable ways.

For example, in Mark 4:38-40, Jesus is in the boat that’s flooding… and he’s asleep. “They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’”

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm overwhelmed by something - be it professional or personal - I'm not terribly interested in hearing about my faith. I'm interested in riding out the storm and getting safely to shore. But Jesus doesn't think like that. He is focused on what's important, and in the end, that is our faith. He rescues us in uncomfortable ways to force us to focus on what's important, and after we are rescued, he thrusts us into a new uncomfortable situation with our newfound faith. It's a never-ending cycle, and that's okay. That's the way God intends it. We are not meant to be comfortable, but we are meant to have faith in the uncomfortable.