Am I too comfortable?

I wanted to share a quote from one of the books I'm reading, called the Silence of Adam by Larry Crabb.

I wonder if the central passion that rules our culture today is the passion to make life work. We think it should work: if not life in general, then certainly our lives at any given moment. We should feel good about ourselves, enjoy friendships, make a decent living, find a doctor who can cure us, and receive respect from our peers...

We are so shortsighted.

Why? Why are we drawn to small-picture living and uninspired by the chance to be lifted up into the bigger picture that God is drawing?

I wonder if we have, in our day, lost the excitement and drama of our calling: to reveal the unseen God by the way we live, especially by the way we relate to one another. The single most important truth about people is the truth most easily ignored: that we bear the image of God. As image-bearers, we are called to tell his story with our lives, not to tell our stories with his resources.

By neglecting that truth, the calling to be like God has been reduced to a whisper, and the invitation to make our lives work better is being given with a shout. ... The truth about revealing God to others through our lives has been reduced to religious rhetoric that receives our token assent. Meanwhile we go about the 'real' work of getting our lives together and making ourselves comfortable. We prefer practical help over a higher call to live by design.

Reading this passage last week convicted me of my desire to be comfortable and to focus on myself. It is so easy to get caught up in the world's mentality of working hard for a career, buying a house, raising a family, building up your 401k and looking towards retirement. We really have everything available to us that we need to be comfortable, and yet that is not what God has called us to.

The church I grew up in, Orangewood, changed their vision several years ago to "For Christ and His Kingdom, It's Not About Us." I appreciated that and how it reminds me to look outside myself. It was neat to see the church reach out more into the community and have a big impact there over the next several years. God is really using them in Maitland, Eatonville and greater Orlando. Over the summer, Jamie and I changed churches here in Atlanta, we are now attending All Souls Fellowship in Decatur, which is a plant from the church we were members of for 6+ years. We are joining All Souls next Sunday and are excited to be getting more involved.

One of the things we mentioned soon after visiting was that it made us uncomfortable (in a good way!), challenging us to view things differently and to look outside of ourselves. The church is very active in the city of Decatur, both in official ministries as well as members of the church serving in various ways. We are very excited to begin serving with them in the near future.

Changing churches was anything but a comfortable decision, we had a wonderful community of friends at Intown, and have now transitioned to a place where we know very few people, are beginning to attend a community group and are seeking to know others and be known there. I realize that takes time and I have been encouraged recently as the Lord has answered many prayers as we are beginning to have fellowship there.

I pray that as we seek to "reveal the unseen God by the way we live, especially by the way we relate to one another" with those that we meet at All Souls, and those that we work with every day, that God would be drawing us closer to Him and that we would be revealing His story rather than trying to tell our story with His resources.