Are You Comfortable? — UFFT #26

The view from behind the altar after Mass. And no, that’s not a painting, that’s a window.

This weekend, I went to the beach. I went to the beach to help work a retreat that was happening for a few people from my Diocese. Since I was going specifically to help, I really expected to be giving and giving and giving all weekend long, which honestly would have been perfectly fine with me because I really enjoy giving my time to help others, it’s just how I’ve been raised! But God had other plans.

For those who know me or have read really any of the stuff that I’ve written for Unleavened previously, you would know that I’m pretty shy around people that I don’t know very well. In fact, it really extends beyond just shyness, I’m just plain awkward in one-on-one conversations. I don’t really know why I’m like that, it’s just my nature to want to sit back and listen rather than try and talk someone’s ear off! Sitting back during group conversations with people that I don’t know very well is comfortable for me, it’s easy, but God shared something amazing with me this weekend that has challenged me to my inner core.

This weekend, everyone who was on retreat, both adults and youth, spent some time going through a guided Bible Meditation. We read over a passage from Luke’s Gospel, Luke 5:1-11. I recommend you go look it up and read the passage, because it’s a really great one, but for those of you who would power-read through this post, to sum it up here’s basically what happened:

Jesus was being crowded by many people trying to hear his teaching, so he asked one of the nearby fishermen (Simon Peter) to put out a short distance from shore so that He could preach from there. Once He was done preaching, Jesus asked Simon to sail Simon’s boat out to deeper waters and to cast the nets out, even though after a whole night of fishing, Simon had caught nothing. When the nets were cast into the ocean, so many fish were caught up in the nets that the nets began to break. Seeing this, Simon Peter threw himself to the ground, asking Jesus to depart from him.

As I was running that passage around in my head, something odd stuck out to me. As Jesus was in the shallow waters, He was preaching to the people, but nothing more than that is heard about the crowd or anyone in it for the rest of the story. Instead, Jesus put out to deeper waters, and there, unlike close to the shore, is where a true conversion happened.

I think by having this oddity stick out to me, God was trying to tell me something about myself and my mission on Earth. You see, like I was saying before, I like to be comfortable, I like to stay in that shallow water where I can know for certain that I’ll be ok. Push me any farther out, however, and I begin to like it less and less the farther away from the shore I get. But the important part about all of this is that Luke doesn’t mention anything about conversion of other people until Jesus goes out into the deeper waters. I think that God was trying to tell me that if I just sit around and stay in my comfort zone, then I won’t be able to fully complete the tasks that He has set forth for me. In order to truly be the light of Christ to other people, I have to step outside my comfort zone; I have to put out into the deep.

So that’s my challenge for you this week. First of all, think, where are you MOST comfortable? How about where you’re LEAST comfortable? Focus on that place or situation where you’re the least comfortable; is God calling you to step outside your comfort zone to help someone else, or even help yourself become the best child of God that you can be? Take a risk, go outside your comfort zone; I promise you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find.