Thank God For Air-Conditioning

Thank God for air-conditioning. Swimming in ninety degree water doesn't sound to bad, but I'd rather not have to every time I walk out the front door. Even trying to sneak out the back door doesn't work. Still, it's not so bad once the first layer of sweat is out. After half an hour my brain decides this infernal heat is all it's ever known, ever, so it's easier to suck it up and get on with things. "Things", aren't so hard for me to enjoy then.

The "comfort zone" can be described using an analogy derived from AC and summer heat and whatnot. Here are my thoughts.

Truth is, I am often reluctant to get out of the air conditioning of my comfort zone. It feels good, and sometimes there's so much of it I go put on a long-sleeved shirt, hardening myself to the fact that I live in a very comfortable setting. Ignoring the reality of God's blessings.

You know what though, after a while even that AC doesn't feel like enough. How selfish can I get? Dissatisfaction with what I have or don't have settles in, or in other words, ignorance of what I do have. The comfort zone is comfortable, but it's limiting in what happiness it can bring.

Eventually, (with prodding from God) I'll realize that turning up the AC is not the answer, or simply decide that something different is worth a try. I'll go outside. Outside my comfort zone. My first impression? Not comfortable! But if you stick it out through the first sweat, something novel happens.....

.....it gets comfortable. (somewhat more so anyway, no analogy is really perfect :-)

Now here's something really fun, go back to the "unsatisfying" AC. Wow. There's no better way for me to realize what material gifts God has given me, that I don't need, or deserve in any way. Being comfortable does not always mean being happy. Or it could be said that to be comfortable, one must know what they have to be comfortable with it.

Am I happy when I'm not comfortable? I don't think I know the full answer to that yet, but I do know that God blesses me when I work to stretch my comfort zone.

I look at the comfort zone kind of like a circle. If happiness were (and I don't believe it entirely is) restricted to that circle, wouldn't it be in your best interest to make that circle bigger? People would have more happiness in their life if they stopped trying to squirm around to find the best position possible in their little circle, and instead made it bigger by pushing their comfort limits out. The farther out you go, the more things you are comfortable doing, and happy while doing them. Things are easier done the second time around, and even if it's in adverse, not-fun situations, I can't help but be more happy if I've spread my comfort zone out over what I'm doing, sometime before.

And really, what's the point of stopping? If I stay in the AC, eventually things will get dull, what I have will be taken for granted, and the walls of that circle might just crumble a little if I wait to long.

The air outside is uncomfortable. However, God conditions me to the air temperature, carefully cultivating my growth with people, trials, interactions, animals, weather, moisture, new foods, basketball games, guitar playing, everything else, and revelation of His glory.

Thank God for air-conditioning.