Comfortable
Some years ago the company I work for relocated me to the Midlands. During this time I lived in a number of hotels. One was distinctly memorable. It was in the middle of a park and was miles from anywhere. The restaurant had a very good carvery and I had a number of pleasant meals there. However, on one occasion over breakfast, I realised that my life was being doled out in coffee cups. It was an interesting example of hell – comfortable but filled with nothingness. The superficial comfort around me was anaesthetising me to the emptiness I was experiencing.
Trials and tribulations can be good for us because people respond to challenge. In most areas of life people grow through challenge. Athletes develop by training and facing the crushing blows of competition. And after disappointment sportsman redouble their efforts in the pursuit of success. But to paraphrase Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: we train to gain an eternal prize.
As athletes develop, they often coach others to help them to achieve. We should not take for granted what we have – we have it for a purpose. We have been given many gifts that can help us share the salvation that we have received trough the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Comfort – or, should I say, unreasoned comfort – can desensitise us to the world around us. God gives us many good things both through suffering and through affluence and we should use them for His glory and to bring benefit into the lives of others. Let us use the gifts we have received to help others recognise their need for the salvation so freely offered by God.
David Bradshaw
April 2006