Good Doesn't Mean Comfortable

A college friend has been working on Bible translation in a foreign country for several years now. She lived in this country with her parents some years ago but never alone. She left what she's known for years- the friends, the work, the familiarity of the States- and went to the unknown because she believed the work was important. She shares some amazing stories and beautiful pictures. I think she is doing an important work but I don't have to live it. I don't get to live the exciting parts and I don't have to live the difficult parts. 

A couple I went to high school with got married shortly after we graduated. They have a little girl around Micah's age and they recently adopted a four-year-old. As in, they had one four-year-old and now they have two.  They are loving it but also facing adjustment and difficulties in the process. Why are they doing it? Because it matters. 

We brought home our third baby almost two months ago. Another little life to love, care for, and train for Jesus. Another little boy to be a part of our family and be colored by our family worldview. 

What do these stories have in common? 

Change. Change happened in all of these stories. Not a small change, like I bought a different flavor of ice cream. Big change that will affect the rest of each person's life. Big change that means that nothing is quite the same again. 

I'm not sure there is a good way to adjust to change, if by good we actually mean comfortable. Instead I think you have to accept that change will be all kinds of messy; that you'll want to pull your hair out, that you will wonder if it was really a good idea, that you'll think that life will never be normal again. 

Life won't be the same normal again, but you will eventually find a new normal. By the time you get settled into that, something else will change.  But normal isn't the point. The point of life isn't to be comfortable or normal or anything so cheap. The point of life is to live it for Jesus: to give each day to a work that matters. 

Good sometimes means hard. Good sometimes means you cried, you apologized, you got up and tried again. Good sometimes means that you made it through and you can finally collapse into bed. Good sometimes means that you did the work even if you saw no results. Good can mean you did the work even though you'll have to get up tomorrow and do it all again. Good can mean that you did it when you didn't feel it or that you kept your mouth shut when you wanted to scream at someone or that you helped someone who didn't deserve it. 

In a life that matters good cannot equal comfortable. Comfortable is the death of growth. Comfortable is the sitting on the couch watching tv for hours while life passes you by. Comfortable is doing the same thing, even if it doesn't work, day after day because you don't want to push through something new. Comfortable is stagnation. 

Be uncomfortable; that's where the best part of living starts.