SPIRIT School of Ministry
Comfort | SPIRIT School of Ministry Podcast #108
welcome to the spirit school of ministry podcast where we discuss discipleship in everyday life Hey everyone welcome to this what are we doing? I think this podcast this podcast okay Allergies are heavy upon you I am Liz. This is Bob. That's David. Hi It's so good to be together with you guys again You're back You know i'm glad you your chances of getting who you were wrong were pretty high just then Yeah, what? Oh I got you. I own name. Yeah, I have to remember who I am Yes in uh, California. I'm Liz Yes in uh, my parents home. I'm Elizabeth in the south. I'm lee is and in greece. I'm lee's Wow, three three the south liz has three syllables Lee is Yeah, so so today i'm liz. Okay. Okay, good. Great. All right. Well We are going to talk about interesting subjects today the subject of comfort Yes I'm just gonna sit back and relax on this Enjoy the ride and then complain about how no one can hear you on the podcast My voice is so cool. You can the mic Maybe that's better Wait, maybe that's better All right, so comfort this is kind of uh coming out of another conversation we were having Yeah, just talking about um Well, you want to explain how we got here. Yeah, I asked you what The american church could learn from other parts of the world Or some things that we struggle with and you had mentioned that you thought comfort was a big issue in america Yeah, I think for me Just because of our new life experiences my husband and I Living in greece and being so uncomfortable and I just mean like Everything's unfamiliar. You don't have your routine. You don't have the places you like to go You don't have the friends you usually hang out with you don't have the foods you usually you don't have anything that you normally comfort yourself with And so I just and I begin to understand like how much we crave comfort we like we crave being comfortable and even if it's just the comfort of uh daily routine or the comfort of familiar relationships or familiar Furniture that you like to sit in, you know, it's like there's just so many things about comfort that I've just been realizing like I really um Crave I guess and not having those things is like you have to deal with that, you know being in an unfamiliar place So I just was um, it's just started a whole train of thought for me About comfort worldly comfort godly comfort and how those two things uh may be are different. Yeah Yeah, I mean you're just talking about worldly versus godly comfort And obviously god is a comforter So that's then you know one of the titles of the holy spirit paraclete which can be Rendered as the comforter also be rendered as the advocate or the counselor But um, I think we need comfort. I was I was asking myself If if every comfort was stripped away, you know, could you even live? Could you keep going? Probably there's probably some absolute extreme situations that that you could But I think we're gonna always you know Scrape and claw to find comfort and like where are you gonna go to find it which maybe is your question exactly? Yeah, I don't know what what's like a You know, I'm just brainstorming here because you know, the worldly comforts would be All the the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life You could comfort yourself with the substance with food, you know, you could comfort yourself with a relationship Uh with achievements, you know, you with a feeling of pride or attainment Um, you could comfort yourself With social media likes, you know anything that's gonna Okay, you know, it kind of you know rubs a little balm on the the rawness of your your life experience But all that I think is such a temporary Right comfort and it's going to actually increase your appetite for for more of the same And it's like any addiction, you know, I don't I think addiction might get thrown around a little too much but Um, when you have an appetite for anything and you continually feed it is just going to grow and grow and grow Until it becomes your whole personality. And that's been I mean, I could see it in myself Like I I'm very comfort oriented. That's probably like one of the biggest things I have to fight against Um, yeah, I don't know if you have anything you want to jump on on this with Kind of uncomfortable with this Subject actually, but um You know, when I think about that, I think that The issue is is that we people tend to try to comfort themselves Or find comfort Whereas Comfort in the bible is normally coming from either god or somebody else Right, it's actually something coming to you Rather than something you going after and bringing into your own life Right and that's the difference and I think that's the difference between it and addiction You know and got and well for someone, you know who needs some kind of medicine or something in their life Someone's prescribed the medicine and they're taking it sort of the prescription and hopefully it's handling whatever they've got Now if you're just addicted to drugs, then you You've decided you've become your own comforter and unfortunately then there's nobody there to uh regulate What what level of comfort there is because like you said you become addicted to comfort Um, and you can't all of a sudden you can't be satisfied all of a sudden you have to have more comfort And pretty soon any little thing becomes uncomfortable Right And that's an issue because from what I understand from the word There's going to be some uncomfortable times that uh, we as god's people Uh come into everything isn't just all happy happy fun fun There are great times in god and wonderful times in god But there's also times where there are trials where they're you know Executions there's things that come in life and if you're addicted to just comfort you It's a real problem. I think It becomes in a lot of ways and then you start blaming um other people for not comforting you enough or blaming circumstances or Or blaming god, right? So that's interesting. They say there's a godly comfort that is given to you by others But then there's an ungodly way where you manipulate people into comforting Yeah, so that's you know, that's just what I thought Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think for me, um It was even things like um having the comfort of a place that felt like home You know, because we don't we have a nice place. We're staying but it it's not necessarily our home You know, and so then we come here. It doesn't it's not quite home You know, and so and I just think about like Jesus where it says like he didn't he didn't even the son of man Like he didn't have a place to lay his head like Jesus walked through this life Like I said, I've just been thinking about these things like the way he lived He really lived without a lot of comforts, you know, he wasn't married. He didn't have a family He didn't have a a settled home. He was misunderstood a lot like there's a there's a comfort in being known That you don't really appreciate until you go somewhere where people don't really know you they don't know um Like your proven character. They don't know who the intricacies of who you are Like you know what i'm saying? Like there's a lot of comfort that comes with that and when you come to a place in your life where you're without all of those things um Thankfully, I mean it really makes you turn to the comforter It's interesting just because I found myself like very like okay lord. Like you're my home you're my Friends you're my family like you're everything to me right now because I don't have any of these things And then as soon as like a little piece of comfort like okay now I know how to get around I like I'm more familiar here. I have kind of a schedule for my week now Like the comfort factor started coming in and the dependency started going Exactly and actually what I was you know, what triggered me when you said that was that when you are totally um involved in comfort or you you know comforts coming to you in those areas What goes away is faith right because you don't actually need faith of everything's just fine Right and so I what's interesting to me is that I believe the whole the whole thing behind uh discipleship of any kind or becoming a disciple is actually Link to being uncomfortable is actually linked to being placed into places Uh spiritually sometimes mentally sometimes physically Because comfort happens on all those levels where all of a sudden you're not um Uh, you know, you're uncomfortable and you have to rely on him Right, you can't just get by on everything you do and you know, and uh, you know, and just kind of skate by He I actually believe the prescription for For uh discipleship actually requires being uncomfortable. Yes, world's no faith I agree things just fine and laid out for you. Yeah, you know completely. Yeah I mean, obviously this all links back to the idolatry subject, you know, because you're You're relying on these comforts instead of the comforter Right instead of god and a lot of times our life lies on the other side of our discomfort So um a lot of times you can be trapped in comfort Like you're saying if you're not a A disciple would step through discomfort into what the lord has asked him to do Um, and so For me, I see that in parenting where like at night. The end of the day. My kids are screaming destroying The living room And I just want to look at my phone. I just want to soothe myself And I can escape from them a little bit or I can put the phone away and get on the ground Right, and so it's like that's where I enjoy my life more But I really don't want to do that, you know, like I just really don't want to make that step and some days I don't right and but hopefully most days I will and I'll go join with that and I'll live my life You know, I'll actually be able to receive comfort from other human beings and from god And you know from doing what I was meant to do or if I choose what's going to soothe me Just like if i'm sucking my own thumb psychically I'm just like on social media. That's really what it is. It's like An ancient thing that it's like hums. I'm stressed. I've got it. I've got to have a comfort I've got to have I got to know what's happening. I got to know how to dull the pain I got to know how to control it. I got to know how to escape from this thing Where's you know, where's my audiobook? Where's my podcast? Where's my you know, where's my escape hatch? That's gonna keep me from living my real life, you know, and so it's almost a matrix choice it's like, you know, what am I gonna am I gonna engage in life, which is This world's under the curse life isn't a comfortable place Even in western civilization, but in western civilization in america You really don't have to go without comfort for even one second. No, you know, is that something you've you kind of mentioned that? I know I just I think that especially The american culture I just have been like realizing is so geared toward comfort and convenience I mean like in every like anything Like people make millions of dollars off making little things that just make your life a little bit more comfortable You know what i'm saying? It's like every like when you go to a country where that's not like Uh, like they're just trying to get by like having enough to pay their rent and food and pay their taxes And then there's you don't have all like the creature comforts, you know, so i'm just realizing like wow like america is so geared toward comfort and convenience And is consumed with that and it really does it's like it just To me it like it just dulls you. It's just it just dulls your your existence because there's no Place in your life where you have to deal with discomfort You can have whatever you want whenever you want it you could have your Strawberries anytime of the year. You don't have to wait for anything like everything's ready You can you want lunch. You get it right now. You eat it like it's ready for you. You don't have to wait like everything is just Yeah Ready and available and you do not have to be uncomfortable at any point in your life If someone says something it makes you uncomfortable like you called like they're the in the wrong, you know I mean like everything about america is Let's be as comfortable as possible all the time. Yeah. Well, I believe that what happens is you passivate yourself through that It's all just you're just sitting there like you said you're Yeah, you know sucking your thumb just and just getting you know just being passivated and uh actually I think what happens then Is it uh it dulls you so you're because you The you become the passive part of the passivated you're so Did I just make a new word up here? Yes, I knew it like that Write that down But really you I believe what happens when you're comforted all the time you do become passive You there's no Reason to push past because that's really what the you know The difference is if you're aggressive and all and I don't mean in a bad way Where you're not if you're not willing to step out or never have to have the need to step out into an area That's uh out there a little you you just become just an oak, you know You just passive about everything you don't want to do anything that wishes you or presses you or you know And you know life is a box of chocolates And you just kind of you know get by with everything everything's beautiful that right right and you're dull Yeah, and meanwhile the gospel is so it means like pick up your cross. Yes, you know, I mean It's like crucify comfort in your life like that's actually the call of the gospel Jeez I thought about it I just think it's like the contrast of like where a life where everything is about comfort and then meanwhile the lord is like What about my kingdom like what about your eternal life like Don't get don't be low to sleep by this stuff. I'm calling you to live a different way And then like in our mind is so unreasonable like oh the The pastor's asking me to come to church in the middle of the week, you know, or like I was supposed to give my time to this And it's like well, that's not convenient. It's certainly not comfortable, you know And it's like it just becomes so unreasonable when it means how like that's like come give a couple hours a week, you know Jesus is like give me your life. Yeah, I'm calling you. I'm calling you to a life Possessions. Yes, I've discomfort like that's actually what he's calling you to is like to lose everything That makes you comfortable and lay be willing to lay it all down so that you can find true life Yeah, remember reading um David brainer's diary this missionary from the 1800s or 1700s And he would he gave a daily, you know, chronicle of his life with god and some days he'd be like Utterly forsaken persevered in prayer or something like that another day as he would say Consolations from god very sweet today, you know, like he would like he had no comfort He was like in the snow trying to evangelize to native american tribes and stuff And he had no like physical comforts and sometimes he would get comfort from god, but he called him constellations It was like your consolation, but like his ultimate reward was was god an eternity Right and his relationship with the lord, but even some days he's like I got nothing from god But he's like i'm still doing this Pretty inspiration he died really young but You have to I mean because because this is what it's about like he really believed jesus Right and how much how many of us really believe jesus? That's a scary thought right well, I think just comfort also sharpened you Yes, it honed you it honed you so that you're you're able to Handle things that you know under normal conditions if you were just like I said just relaxed all the time and everything's comfortable You would never you'd never find that sharp edge of of your life the kind of life we're supposed to have I don't believe you'd ever be the salt Or the light in the earth because those things are they push out. They don't just sit passive right or else than they're there a problem Um, yeah, there's a there's a lot there about that comforted, but the thing I think of also is When you look at the examples in the bible like paul I was like He just just start reading through. Uh, you know, I was in uh in the water for a few days I was about, you know, overnight with rods We've been with rods uh got 39 plus one now several times. I mean, you know, he's You know That I couldn't say that was a comfortable life And then he's going like we read through like and then they went to you know Yeah, it's only, you know, a six month walk Exactly It's a montage And it's and it's through, you know Haring harrowing experiences Where you're near death probably most of the time or you know, like he says perilous times There's people wanting to take your life or take your stuff And there's like no comfort there right and yet he's still going Yeah, he's still going and I think if we're going to be the kind of people That will rescue people that will pull people, you know, like brands out of the fire like the bible tells us that we Um, we have to be people that aren't just You know In love with comfort like that's the only way I can operate see everything has to be perfectly in place Yeah, uh, then I can actually minister to somebody Then I can give somebody, you know, the the gospel. It's like, well, no Actually, you may be having the worst day of your life And god will call on you You might be getting martyred for your faith Yeah, god will call him Well, Shadrach and he's shacking the bed We're very comfortable No, well, yeah, I mean you're right paul David joseph. I mean you could just go on the whole list And it's like it's like god doesn't hide in this from us You know, I'm like where do we get these ideas that it's like this nice easy Just I do what, you know, I got my nice life and jesus is my buddy and we just flown along You know, it's like it is not training montage thing I mean, I I saw a reel where some I forget who it was but someone was talking about this about how We see all these before and after transformations And then in the movies we have the the rocky training montage Right and we're like cool like I just have to set my mind and then I I'll get there It'll be it'll be so simple, but they don't show the grind of it And they just don't show that right the day after day after day after day Yeah Oh jeez. Yeah, I don't know. I just I guess yeah, it's just been a ongoing Excitement when she's a squeaking the ongoing conversation in my own mind About comfort and then realizing like really What are we here for? What are we here for? What are we looking for? What is our goal? What's our goal in life? Is it to be comfortable? Is it to be? Just like give enough where we're not uncomfortable. We're not in convenience But we still feel good like we still feel good about ourselves Is it I don't know like where's the where's the line of discomfort that where where's the threshold? Well, I believe that um, the world has sold Christianity a bill of goods That says comfort is your goal. Yeah And that's and you have name it in climate. Was that name it in climate name in climate? It's it's the it's where you're it's where you're heading It's the thing you want the most and and meanwhile. It's such a it's such a lie. It is and uh, So, you know, you go living like that And like I said then when things come that will try you that will, uh, uh, uh, stretch you that will, uh, see what you're made out of People people can't handle it. Like you said a simple little thing like, oh, I have to go someplace It's like, oh no, or while my hamburger didn't come in 3.2 seconds For me, I forgot to put right forgot to put bacon You know that you know, Jesus is coming back because they forgot the bacon He's bringing baking with him. Yeah, he did dispense the food laws Could be praise god Yeah And then there's god who is the comfort, you know, like he's It's not that he wants us to live without comfort He wants us to live with true comfort. Yeah, which doesn't mean that he changes our circumstances I mean that when he's talking about the comfort Comfort he's talking about comfort and difficult things, you know, not Let me remove everything so you can be comfortable. It's when when you're in those i'll be with you I will be your comfort in the middle of those. Yeah, it's very different His perspective as usual is very different than Well, yeah, most of us want us to you know want You know, somebody to poof us out of our circumstance, right and god says well I'm gonna just walk with you in and through it Right and sometimes I will deliver you out of the circumstance And sometimes I won't but i'll be with you no matter what Right and that's that's the difference and so and then like I said, there's the other side of comfort where we have to be entertained At all times, right. Yeah, that's a rough divert me. Yes. That's a rough Yes, that's a rough level of Christianity actually which most of christian is totally embraced now I mean this well, I'm gonna say most not most Maybe a lot in the united states, but when you go other places. It's not like that I mean we've had the opportunity to go to africa and india and some of these other places and they are Those are not comfortable places At all and the people there It's interesting because the way they are comforted is right in the middle of things that we would just think are just Horrible just you know, you know unsustainable, you know, which is like this can't be you can't live like this and yet They're living that way And being comforted at the same time. Yeah, so they're actually like Going into him into his presence pressing into his place. Yeah, and being comforted by him In the middle of horrible circumstances as far from our You know perspective, you know, like, you know, there there isn't the supermarket. There isn't Right, you know, there's none of the Things that we've just the comforts that we Embrace they're not there at all like they don't exist in some of those places man I think that's what the beatitudes get at you know the the dependent one who's hungry and thirsty and his morning and That's the person who's blessed because that's the person who's filled with god. It's the person that's Hungry for the kingdom. That's the person that is seeking first god and needing god And like you said it doles are hunger for god when you that's why fasting is an important spiritual discipline It's not because god hates comfort. I believe god loves a good meal He instituted feasts like I believe he loves for us to have fun and go to magic mountain, right the rollercoasters You know, I believe he likes when you know Fun for some of us Like he I believe god enjoys us to have you know, I get to read a good book today and I get to be comforted There's not he's not against any of that Um, but what he's against is us to make that our god There was a god called bakas That was the god of comfort wine feasting party up like that was that's a great people still like that god a lot You know, even though he doesn't you know Have his his old um appearance to us yet appears to us in commercials and in other other ways, right? And so a lot of american consumerism is really devoted to idolizing comfort And like that's where i'm gonna escape. That's where i'm gonna be saved That's what's gonna save me right now. Maybe god will save me someday, but what's gonna save me right now is xyz Yeah, that's false worship is um, it can be very will be very disappointing You know, it's the whole like sim is pleasure for a season once the season's over That that god let you down pretty. Oh, yeah, because there's nothing there then And there's you know to sustain you the rest of the way and you've become like that idol Oh, yeah, well you've become you've adapted to Living like that and by the way and serving that idol or I mean the the whole deal is that you know, the thing that really Fools everybody is that you think it's serving you. Yeah, but in reality You're serving it of course and then all of a sudden it goes away. Yeah, and then what do you look with? Yeah, I think about um Saul and david, you know, he saw was Discomforted and he would call david in to soothe him And he would be soothed for a time, but it never like saw understood That god was comforting him through david, but he never turned to god Right, you know, like he he understood That something about david's life allowed him to bring comfort, but it never made him turn Or the source of that thing. Let's just let's just go there right now. So in christianity We go to the emotional Satisfaction we go to instead of deliverance. We go to emotional Soothe the savages right and yet what happens at the end of that is you still need deliverance And you've felt sort of emotionally emotional You know expression for a little while, but the problem's still there right the issue is still there And christianity is doing that to people they are making them addicted to emotional responses And not not spiritual feeding their demons. Yes. Yeah, and guess what? The enemy of your soul will totally go along with that. Oh, you want to cry a little and religious feel bad Oh, yeah, you know Just feel bad a little while and then when that times over guess what he's still there doing his deal Right. And that's the reality of of where what we're talking about here when we talk about comfort It comes on a whole bunch of levels And we you know, we have to be discerners to understand, you know different things And so you know, every every week you're running up to the altar to cry And then all the week long you're running back to your other altars Oh, I didn't say that That's right on. I mean, it's the spin cycle. It's the spin cycle of Repentance religious works dead works You know Rather than coming to the lord coming to the comforter I mean, it says in second current theans one that we we bless the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction Right. So that we may be able to comfort others And so like I think a good way of walking in real comfort is to take on the mantle of the holy spirit You know, he's the one that's walking alongside us and comforting us So that we can be taking the initiative and we can be comforting others We're not sitting back as a helpless victim hoping someone will comfort us I mean, hopefully we've come to god and said hey, I I want you. I need you today And then from there we're seeing like, okay, where where is somebody down? Where do I come alongside someone? Where do I get down and help somebody get up that I think is going to bring fulfillment Whereas just looking to these idols is going to maybe it's going to bring soothing Maybe it's going to bring you know Two out of ten level, you know comfort, but actually living in what we're made to do Partnering with the holy spirit. I think is going to be Um giving us a sense of meaning and worth that you could never get from comfort With like comfort can give you pleasure and it can give you numbness and whatever It can never give you a sense that you're worth anything Because you know it's worthless. You know scrolling your stuff is worthless You know that substance being addicted to it is is worthless And it's making you less than the image of christ like you you understand that And so if we if we reject that and we put our path towards partnering with god imitating him I think we're going to have a much fuller sense of meaning in our life Um, so yeah, I think the only life you can actually live is his life once you've come to him That that's the that's the bottom line because every other life is not is it's just a counterfeit It's not the real real thing. Yeah, and uh, oh like I said earlier, I God expects us to operate as his sons and daughters In the midst of the worst situation you can possibly be facing in your life He expects and he's made us that to be that Just like he did here on the earth like You know for the joy that was said before he's going for it right in the middle Of what looked like pretty horrible situation Yeah, it was a really horrible situation eight and yet he didn't turn from who he was And he doesn't expect us to either and that's the reality of that So, yeah, I think um one other thing that's coming to my mind is that another be attitude Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted Yes, and so there actually is comfort available I think you know somebody needs to hear that that they go well, so my it's wrong for me to need comfort or you know, no There's actually time that you have to grieve like when you've gone to a new place when when you've lost Um the old way the things used to be when you've You have to grieve that you have to you have to mourn that But you mourn before god And you bring it to god and he says i'm going to comfort you the holy spirit's going to be with you And it's a promise. It's not something that's just like Hopefully someday i'll feel better No, it's like when you actually are like the book of lamentations You you come to god. My whole city has been destroyed everything the temples burnt You for sick your city your people all your promises are gone lord and you you're pouring out your heart At the end he goes, hey, I call this to mind and I have hope the steadfast love of the lord never ceases His mercies fail not they're new every morning great or is your faithfulness And he's able to mourn and actually come to the place where god goes what's all right Sun's going to rise again. I'm with you weeping endured for the night Now here comes joy, you know, and you might have to mourn for quite some time But if you stick it out and you you're honest before god, you're going to receive real comfort Right, you're not going to have to just numb it up So I think somebody should hear that. Absolutely. Yeah, I really think it's the question of what who do you run to? Who do you? What's the source of your comfort? And that if it's always a familiar place I need familiar things that I need the things that I like to be comfortable You'll always retreat back to them. Yeah, where the gospel Spirit calls us forward and he's the comfort in the new places He's what allows us to step into new places Into places that are unfamiliar and still find comfort there You don't need actually all everything to be the same because otherwise we'll never move Into anything new. No, um, but that's what enables us to so yeah Question is who are you right? Who do you run to? Yeah for comfort? What do you run to and I like that? Running to a place you're familiar with and if that place is actually him Then that term you just use which I absolutely love the steadfast love and the lord is there waiting for you Like he's waiting there. He is that he can't be anything else and he's there arms open. Yeah ready to comfort you Yeah, he's the true city of refuge So well, so we bless you today Maybe think about us the lord. What are some things that I run to for comfort? What are some places that I'm looking to for comfort that? Ultimately are going to fail me and where the baby you're calling me into some new places And I need to be able to leave some things behind so what is the true comfort that I need to find in my life? We bless you today Thank you for joining us be sure to subscribe to get the latest episode and for more information visit spirit school of ministry.com (upbeat music)