Casandra Martin

We get set in our ways, don’t we? We have our comfort zones, our spots that are safe, and we guard them fiercely. Change is not a welcome visitor inside the comfort zone. Change asks us to step outside of patterns established by desire or necessity and find a new balance. It asks us to adjust our attitudes, expand our vision, or adopt a new habit. It can be unsettling, even when we know it is a good thing.

The church pew is an interesting place for a comfort zone. If there should be anywhere less likely to be a comfort zone, it should be the church pew. Worship is an encounter with God. It is the moment when we should be the most deliberate about entering His presence, experiencing His grace, and being transformed by His purpose. It isn’t the place to stake a claim or draw a line in the sand. Rather it is a place of surrender. Too many times I come in guarded, intent on shielding my heart from disruption of what it finds comfortable. Grace, by its very nature, demands vulnerability, transparency, and humility. The only way to become saturated with Christ-likeness is to step out from under the umbrella of self into the downpour of His delight.

My Jesus Resolution today is to take a deep breath and step into the Discomfort Zone. Comfort has a gravity-like pull on my heart. My comfort with the status quo, with my sin, and with my selfishness is the heaviness that keeps my soul from flying free. Worship shakes our hearts free from the grip of comfort’s gravity. The habits of praise, prayer, community, study, and service reshape me into someone less comfortable with the world and more in tune with God. Grace understands that the only comfort zone that will truly satisfy my heart is found when I step outside of myself and into the arms of Jesus.