This isn’t about your church, though it may be about your church. This isn’t about your leadership, though it may be about your leadership. This isn’t about your spiritual journey, though it may be about your spiritual journey.
This is a story about me. I like comfortable. I like life the way I like life. What’s crazy is that God doesn’t want me to be comfortable.
“Don’t long for ‘the good old days.’ This is not wise.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10 NLT)
When it comes down to it, none of us really like change. Our natural tendency is to drift to that which is comfortable. That’s why we tend to get bent out of shape when someone challenges our current thinking. Our personal preferences are sacred.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)
I like certain songs sung at a certain volume with a certain amount of lighting. I like certain ministries with certain activities that meet on a certain day of the week. I like certain teachings around certain passages that address the sins of certain people…that aren’t me.
“Sing a new song to the LORD! Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!” (Psalm 96:1 NLT)
New things make me uncomfortable. New things require me to give up control. New things make me change. New things force me to become a new person in a new way.
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22 NLT)
As a leader, sometimes I have to pursue new methods when I know it’s going to disrupt people. It’s going to make them uncomfortable. They might not like that. They may not like me. It’s just easier to keep things the way they are. I like comfortable because I want people to like me.
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT)
I want to have new influence without giving up my old ways. I want to reach new people without giving up my old methods. I want to become a new person without giving up my old life.
It feels more sacred and more holy to hold onto the way things were. Is it sacred, or is it familiar? Is it holy, or is it comfortable?
Sometimes, I have to embrace change because God wants to change me.
