Uncomfortably Out of the Box

Sometimes God allows us to be very comfortable in our lives - good job, nice house, great neighbors, beautiful neighborhood.  And we have to look closely to find where it is that we rub up against the world.  What I mean is that whole "in the world but not of it" verse, except it's when we are hardly aware that we're in it.  Sometimes the closest that we get to seeing the lost world is a trip to Walmart. 

However sometimes, we are thrust out of our comfort zone into an uncomfortable and unpleasant darkness, where there is no love or forgiveness.  That is the real world for some people.  I'm talking about battered women, unloved children, and depressed men.  It amazes me how many people don't know about God's love and it truly breaks my heart.  Some folks don't even know a small bit about Jesus.  In their mind, He's up there with Buddha and Gandhi and Mohammad.  And all the while they think they've got to work their way to heaven while living in fear that their best efforts just won't be good enough. 

We are called to take them the truth and love them and show them that Christ wants them right now just like they are, just like He wanted us when we were hopeless.  How easy it is to forget that we were once "on the outside" and we had weird ideas about heaven and how to get there.  But we have been given a gift, and a gift is meant to be shared with someone. 

So are we safe and sound in our snow globe world where we don't have to touch the untouchables?  Switchfoot has a song ("Gone") that says it like this, "we got information in the information age, but do we know what life is outside our convenient Lexus cages," and I think it's a fair question.  Sometimes playing it safe is just an excuse for not doing anything we find uncomfortable.

So take a risk for Jesus and do something that is out of the box that might even be uncomfortable.  But in so doing, think of the beauty of a miserable soul hearing the word of God for the very first time.  Trust me, there is a high that comes with such a moment as that which is addictive and makes the safe life look empty and vain.