The Place of Discomfort

We want to feel good about ourselves… feeling loved and accepted… enjoying success… being appreciated, motivated , inspired encouraged… feeling comfortable in our own skin, having a positive body image’… Winnie the Pooh’s big hearts and big hugs…

It’s Spring – the time of year when everyone talks about ‘feeling better’. There’s sunshine, the days are longer, it’s warmer. We smile at pictures of daffodils, blossom, lambs.

We want to feel good, relaxed… be in the place of comfort.

It’s the 30^th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder. Yesterday I was reading award winning rapper, author and broadcaster Guvna B. He writes about society and the church progressing in racial justice, a greater social awareness, helping those in need:

‘Handouts can feel great because they make us feel important, but do you know what is more costly? The church giving up some of its wealth, its comfort, its positioning, and leaving the four walls of the building to get its hands dirty…’

…We should deliberately, intentionally, move to a place of discomfort…

In Holy Week there awkward moments when Jesus creates places of discomfort… turning over the tables in the temple… welcoming the expensive perfume poured on his feet… a woman wiping his feet with her hair… washing his disciples’ feet… calling Peter out over his denial… Judas’ disillusion, betrayal and ultimate suicide…

Finally an innocent man, alone and abandoned in desperate prayer, facing an unjust trial, refusing to defend himself, mocked, tortured and painfully executed… The ultimate place of discomfort.

Musing… I enjoy the place of comfort when my world feels under my control, in the sunshine, well-fed. I feel valued and loved…

Choosing the Jesus path of love and empathy, humility and service, suffering and the cross… I may face difficult, unanswered questions… I choose the place of discomfort.