Faith Gaps is an ongoing series examining the impact of fear on our faith journeys.
Most of what I've written so far in the Faith Gaps series has to do with our fear of something external. But we can also fear something internal: our sense of inadequacy, our mistakes, our sin, our standing or reputation, our lack of self-worth.
We may seek comfort to overcome these fears or leave them unaddressed. One example comes from Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. Tomlin says he sees his assistant coaches blame players for mistakes or lack of coachability. They want to get rid of such players. But he corrects the coaches, showing them how they are seeking comfort because they were inadequate in their job of coaching the players assigned to them.
How might this trend of seeking comfort play out for us? An example: ask yourself or someone(s) why they don't follow Jesus's command to love your enemy. You will hear a litany of rationalizations that point the finger at other people and how difficult they are. But that is simply seeking comfort for the fact that we don't want to love others or are unskilled at the task. We want to create a comfortable cocoon that permits us to avoid that part of Jesus's commandments.
I assess that the root of seeking comfort is fear, making such an approach a faith gap. We should find our self-worth in Christ. We should trust that the God will help us do hard things. We should rely on the Holy Spirit to hold up a mirror to show us our shortcomings and hold up a lamp to show us the way forward.
When we place our trust and self-worth in God's hands, we don't have to fear, and we don't have to seek comfort. Believe me, I am writing this message for myself more than I am for you. I seek comfort all the time and don't even realize it until I deeply think about it. Join me in increasing our determination to let go of comfort seeking and to grasp onto something bigger and brighter that will relieve our fear and produce a stable peace in our hearts.
To discover comfort zones you didn't even realize you had, please read my book, "From Comfort Zone to Trust Zone: How Jesus Urges Us to Take Leaps of Faith for His Kingdom." It goes deeper and scripturally into how we chase comfort and the alternative Jesus offers us to grow our faith and live vibrantly. It's available from CecilTaylorMinistries.com (see the Buy Now button) and from a range of online booksellers.
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