“Maybe this isn’t about being comfortable.”

Asked to perform a familiar task in a new setting, a friend of mine offered this observation. Although being helpful is in her nature, she admitted she wasn’t comfortable with the new situation.

I recently had grown accustom to the idea of being “without comfort.”

I lived in an apartment for three years. Pleasant community and good neighbors. Centrally situated near shopping, restaurants and walking trails, it was indeed an excellent location. Two months back, I received my annual notice to renew.

“Do not renew your lease” were the first words I heard from the Holy Spirit, even before I prayed about it. “Don’t renew?” I asked. “Where am I to go if I don’t stay here?” “Trust Me” was the response.

Prior to this apartment, I moved six times in four years. The last three times, I clearly heard the Holy Spirit tell me where to move and when to move. Each time I obeyed. This time was different. Not being given a new direction, I was simply being told not to remain where I was. I freely admit that I stalled as long as I could on this one. Two days before I had to give notice, I walked into the complex office and signed the papers to move out. On the form was a request for a forwarding address. I simply answered “TBD”. As I sit here tonight, I have less than 48 hours before I have to move out of the apartment. I have placed nearly everything I own in storage. Work will take me to three or four locations over the next few weeks. Between those trips and family, I figure I can keep a roof over my head until mid-December. After then I do not know what I will do or where I will be living.

“Maybe this isn’t about being comfortable.”

Very little about maturing in faith is comfortable: surrender, obedience, dying to self, spiritual attacks, tests from God.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1:2-3

It is through these tests that God prepares us for our calling. He builds us up to take on the plan He has prepared for us. For me, this has been an eight-year spiritual journey. I have failed many times along the way, but God has remained faithful. He has challenged, pushed and pulled me in various directions, preparing me for whatever is next.

Way back in the days before the internet, I went through a significant growth spurt. I grew nearly 4 inches during my last summer of high school. Aches and pains were commonplace.

My experiences during my walk in faith lead me to conclude spiritual maturity, like physical maturity, comes with growing pains.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. – Hebrews 5:12-14

But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.- Ephesians 4:20-24

“Put off your old self … and to put on the new self” this is a challenging and painful process. And it is not a process that accommodates comfort. Scripture shows us that even Jesus Christ suffered in His walk. He experienced our pain as He moved toward the cross.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. – Hebrews 5:7-8

Be it challenges from God or attacks from the evil one, we must face the reality that comfort will at best keep us where we are, and at worst, turn us away from God. We must remain steadfast and work through the discomfort, calling out to God and asking to be taught.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.- Romans 5:2-6

Years ago, I was part of a Wilderness Search and Rescue team. Out on a search one evening, it was dark, cold, and raining. We were on the up slope of a steep trail and could not communicate with base camp, although we could hear them over the radio. Facing a night in the rain in a makeshift tarp tent or a six-mile hike out, a team member reminded us of a bit of military lingo: “Embrace the Suck”. In other words, accept your situation and keep moving forward. Fortunately, the radio operator at the command office that night was on top of her game and she provided us a pickup location. The bumpy ride on a four wheeler was better than our other options. By the way, the missing young man was located and returned safely to his parents. 

If you will excuse the crassness, might I suggest we adopt the “embrace the suck” motto and lean into whatever challenges we face as we mature in our faith. Our reward is far better than a bumpy ride on a four wheeler.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. – James 1:12

Work through the growing pains. Grow closer to God. Fulfill your calling.