Comfort zone

Recently, I was working on labor and delivery on call. We had just delivered a healthy baby but the mom had a tear in a location that was a bit unusual. Now I have repaired several of these tears before but the resident that I was working with had never done it.  I gave him general instructions on how to do the repair but I could tell that he was a little bit nervous. It took a long time but eventually he repaired it and it looked really nice. He turned to me though and said "man I really don't like doing that kind of repair. I like the other one so much better." I turned to him and said "well if you only did what was in your comfort zone, you would never learn anything." He thought for a second and said "you're right." He learned a new skill that day and while he might not use it that often, when it comes again he's going to know what to do. He will also feel a lot more comfortable doing it.

Of course that is a lot like life. Sometimes we get complacent and happy to be where we are. We do what we like to do, we know how to do it, it feels comfortable to do it, and so we go on like that. However, it is when we reach out of our comfort zone that we expand ourselves and we learn more. We must strive to become better than what we are to experience the fullness that God has planned for us.

Right now I am in the midst of this situation. It would be so much easier to just stay in my comfort zone, do what I know how to do, and keep doing it comfortably. I do believe however that God has called me to do something different. It means a change of scenery, change of plans, a change of place, literally uprooting my family from everything they know and they are comfortable with doing. That kind of growth is exciting but also scary and intimidating. There's a lot that has to happen before changes can be effective and sometimes it so much easier to just stay where we are and keep doing what we know how to do. One thing about change is that it always comes with uncertainty. Unless we are willing to go out on a limb sometimes, we won't reap the rewards of our efforts.

Thinking back to biblical days, there were so many situations were people did not know what was going to happen to them. They couldn't do research on the Internet  to know the logical conclusion of their actions. They just had to trust God and do it. In those days people left home and never knew if they would ever return. People had babies and fully expected that they might not survive  the process. Peole were called by God all the time to do things outside their comfort zone. They were asked to go please, to do things sometimes even to love people that they didn't know. One thing that's constant about this world is that it is ever changing. We must lean on God and trust that he will make our paths go in the direction that we are intended to go. Only when we realize that with God all things truly are possible but without him everything that we do is pointless do we live to our full potential.