Jail Break!

 
A friend posted on the mesmerizing and hypnotizing scandal that is Facebook that when God asks us to do something outside our 'comfort zone' we say 'NO!'  even though we have prayed and asked  Him to increase our faith.

That started me thinking about comfort zones.    One definition of comfort is:  "a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants with freedom from pain and anxiety."

A definition of zone is:  "to divide into areas subject to special restriction."  (This definition is of the word zone used as a verb.)

So!   Given these definitions of two seemingly disparate words, I come up with this observation:   We have zoned ourselves into a state of ease and satisfaction with freedom from pain or anxiety.

We are zoned out.

We are restricted.

In other words, we are in a  prison of our own making.   

It's a cushy prison with all we could ever want or need in the way of fluffy mattresses to sleep on and overstuffed cushions to sit on, all the high tech electronics we could ever imagine, a well stocked pantry to supply even the tiniest twinge of hunger and our own hand picked set of friends and family.  Oh!  and don't forget our very own reserved seating at our church of choice.   Dontcha just love this place?!   Wow!   Every person's dream!   Thank You Jesus!

Although it is everything described above, it is nevertheless still a prison.   A self imposed prison.   In God's eyes, it holds us securely just as well as the prison cell in the photo above.  Bazinga!  The joke's on us. 

God did not call us to live in a comfort zone.   He did not call us to be in a restricted area away from the world.    In fact, some of His very last words to us were:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

I don't know about you, but that does not sound like instructions to sit in my plush prison cell.   It sounds more like a Commandment from the  One that gives me life.

He says "You have the power I have given to you.   You have the key to the prison door.  You have the testimony of what I have done for you.  Now go and tell others.   Go and be the instrument I use to reach the world so that people will be saved."  

This is not "show and tell".   He didn't say from the comfort of your living room, "I want you to invite others over and show them what a wonderful prison you have made for yourself."    He didn't say "I want you to go to church and sit and listen to your preacher on Sundays and then go lock yourself back into prison so that you will be safe from the world." 

He told us to "get out there, get our hands and feet dirty in the leper colonies  and in the modern up to date offices, the construction sites, the grocery stores, the hair salons, the mechanic shops, the schools, the prison cells, the hospitals, the nursing homes and retirement centers, the restaurants, the malls, the homeless shelters, foreign countries, foreign cultures and the highways and byways of the world.   Go places where others will not go.  Go places where people show up every day."


No, this is not 'show and tell'.    It is "GO AND TELL!" 


I think I am preaching to myself and to the choir.    I hope they are listening and ready to break out of jail!