Getting Comfortable With The Uncomfortable

And I can’t tell the bottom from the top
Am I standing on my head or on my heels?
Is it cloudy is it bright?
Is it day or is it night?
Am I wrong or am I right?
And is it real?

This old Hollies song has been going round in my head…

…Musing on times when ‘I can’t tell the bottom from the top.’  I don’t know what to do or say. The comfortable is comfortable; I want to stay there. But I’m confused, uncertain and uncomfortable.

Many friends have lived through difficult times – unemployment, marriage problems, addictions, life-changing illness, family difficulties and divisions… what they can do or should do… facing uncomfortable, difficult choices…

Tilly Ramsay, daughter of TV chef Gordon Ramsay, is on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. On Saturday night, together with her professional dance partner, she danced a Charleston. and went to the top of the leader-board.

After the dance she said that learning to dance was about ‘getting comfortable with the uncomfortable’. She deliberately challenges herself. To be a better dancer she can’t avoid the uncomfortable – she faces and embraces it.

…Musing on Matthew 9… Jesus embraced the unconventional and the uncomfortable… He calls Matthew, the tax collector, to follow him. For many that’s an uncomfortable choice. He eats with tax collectors and prostitutes… where’s his comfort zone?

He says: ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’. If I make a sacrifice I give; it might be tough but I control it. If I’m mercy-full then I’m deliberately choosing the uncomfortable – that’s out of my control. I’m giving mercy to those who don’t deserve it.

There will still be days when ‘I can’t tell the bottom from the top’ – and wish I could; I’ll still ask ‘Am I wrong or am I right?’ – and not be sure. I’ll try to learn from 19-year-old Tilly Ramsay and the timeless Jesus and seek to ’get comfortable with the uncomfortable.’