Comfort Zone

[RickardoHolmes]

SO in this pandemic of Covid 19 which the multitudes have allowed to become a political issue, when in reality it is a health issues, I noticed many churches here are offering services via facebook and you tube. Of course, our go to temple is closed until further notice, so one morning I got the spirit to check out an online church. What I found is the most inspiring pastor imaginable, the opposite of most clergy I have met personally, a man who not only preaches God's Love but exemplifies it. Especially in the trying times of today

One of his points was that we as Americans need to step out of our comfort zone and make good things happen in our world.

The idea of stepping out of one's comfort zone has led me to penning a book's worth of spiritual guidance, starting with the preface of stepping out of one's comfort zone.

Of course, Jesus exemplified this. Jesus did not stay locked in his temple, but took the risk associated with travelling around the lands preaching to the riskiest and lowest people as well as the highest. Certainly his Apostles faced this as well as they themselves would later challenge Rome, something which could bring certain death. I dare anyone to spend a night in the worst part of town, around the pimps and prostitutes, the druggies, but these are examples of people to which Jesus ministered and loved, teaching them about God's Love and bringing them to a higher calling of discipleship.

For many the comfort zone is the home, the living room, the Sunday morning pew.....not venturing to take the risk that brings REAL growth and insight.

With that is the preface, I talk about in the first chapter* perception, how our senses perceive the world yet how things are not in reality as we think we perceive them. I talk about letting go of prejudices, binary thinking (Saying something is either/or) and learning to live in the reality of the moment, taking in and experiencing that which is around us. We learn to expand what we have long thought of as our "comfort zone" and eventually to leave it all behind.....allowing for insights, learning and experiences which will lead us to true growth and enlightenment.
Amen.



*Still in a rough draft

 

[Pavel Mosko]

It's funny about the whole "comfort zone topic". I actually believe that God himself in various ways forces us to leave it with the various upheavals we can have in life.


I've heard folks, especially Pentecostals / Charismatics preach against the comfort zone especially when it comes to things like liturgy and other kinds of church tradition, but I've seen many issues where that sort of thinking is fallacious. Basically that people tend to equate spontaneity, excitement etc. with being spiritual (aka "Being anointed") and that has its own load of problems. I have written a bit about that as "The Cult of Spontaneity". In the Bible, there actually is a proper kind of a comfort zone, that actually is what Shalom/peace is all about. And I think the folks that really crusade against comfort zones often are stirring the pot in ways that can actually be counter productive and at times unhealthy. Also a large part of the spiritual life can be spent dealing with times where not much seems to be going on or getting accomplished etc. they can be boring on the outside, but very profitable if we can accept that stillness and find God and his wisdom within it.

 

[RickardoHolmes]

I too have heard Pentecostals and Charismatics as well as other Biblians preach against the comfort zone. Problem is, I have seen little to no spiritual growth or happiness amongst that group. Isolation does not encourage spiritual fulfillment, but it does encourage and breed fear and loathing. So in a way, they are often stuck in their own comfort zone, whether it be a book a dogma a congregation.

 

[Scott Husted]

Growth happens when we follow on to know; a place where no one outside of you can bring you to.