Safe is Not Always Comfortable
Tuesday afternoon there were storm warnings for Gauteng. I decided to leave work early to try and get home before the storm. As I was walking home, I asked God to keep me safe. So when I saw the rain getting close, I stopped to marvel at the beauty of it instead of panicking. I knew I was safe.
A few minutes after this photo was taken, light rain started. It was the most refreshing thing after the heat wave of the past few days. The rain kept on getting heavier until I was completely soaked. I kept going, still feeling quite safe. But then the lightning started getting closer, and I found myself praying desperately for protection against the elements.
The Holy Spirit’s answer was profound. “Of course you are safe! But safe doesn’t always mean dry…”
This made me realize that sometimes when we ask God to keep us safe, what we actually mean is that we want Him to keep us comfortable. And sometimes comfortable prevents us from getting to where God wants us to be. It is hard to step out of that comfort zone, in order to reach the people that God wants us to reach.
When Paul and Timothy wrote their second letter to the Corinthians, they were anything but comfortable. But that didn’t stop them from spreading the good news, because they knew that God wouldn’t ever abandon them.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (The Message*): 8As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, 9but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. 10What they did to Jesus, they do to us – trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us – he lives!
Paul wrote to the Romans how nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Romans 8:38-39 (WEBBE): 38For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This week, I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone to reach out to somebody. Despite it being uncomfortable, remember that you are always safe in the arms of the Lord.
* Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.