Out of the Comfort Zone

” ³ He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. ⁴ The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ ⁵ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶ And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. ⁷ You must speakmy words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. ⁸ But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
⁹ Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll,¹⁰ which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.”

Ezekiel 2:3-10

I have been thinking about Ezekiel lately. About how hard it was for him to give up the prestige of being a Rabbi in exchange for a prophet of God. See, being a prophet was a much lower standing and being a Rabbi held utter respect in the community. But Ezekiel loved God so much and wanted to serve Him in all ways, so when he was called to serve, he did so at this expense to his entire life. Why would he do this? Was he crazy? It would have been so much easier to continue to serve people by being a rabbi, teaching on God’s Word. Was that not enough? Evidently, the Bible tells us that God had more in store for Ezekiel. We are reminded in Luke 18:18-30 of this, that our treasure in Heaven is worth more than our wealth on this earth. And yet, I know I enjoy the comfort of my home and the stability of my life. I enjoy the many creature comforts that the people around me enjoy. What does it look like to really follow Jesus? To give up our comforts?

And I want to hold on to the norm, the ease of life according to the standards of my society, but my society has changed. The rules are changing and I can’t help but see that I am being called to step outside my comfort zone and do something different and more for my family. I want to yell at God and ask Him how He could let us go through this, how could He watch the thousands of people in my state be flushed out of their norm, too? And not just their norm they are being taken out of, but many families are being forced to move, to lose their homes in the name of following His Will vs. following the government. How do we do this? While there are thousands of us here in New York state being forced into this situation, and our children being forced to be different, it is still a most difficult choice to make–we are faced with following God and His Will or following the government standards. Our children are being forced to give up much-needed services that are administered through the school system as well as their friends, their sports, and even their collegiate dreams built on those things.

I don’t want to be confronted with this choice, I want to slink into my routine and not have it change. Because it hasn’t just changed, it has toppled completely. And not just for me, but for one of my children. He doesn’t even know how much so, as it breaks my heart that he won’t have his friends and beloved teachers nor the tradition of the school his sister graduated from. But I won’t sacrifice my faith for the sake of the government nor will I sacrifice my son to them, either. My son will learn that our faith is so important that we won’t bow down before other gods. I pray that one day my son will understand this choice we were forced to make. I pray that God will bring me the comfort and strength that I need to make the sacrifices that my family needs to make to endure this. I will remind my son that we are much like the Jews who were exiled to Egypt, yet we are not being exiled from the Holy Land, we are being sent out and away from our community that we are entrenched in. I will remind him that this is most certainly the Valley.

And when I think about Ezekiel I also think about how my comfort is not something to hold onto. That there are going to be choices in this life that may feel counterintuitive and beyond what I believe is my norm. But I wasn’t called to just plod through this life, I was called to a life that is so much more than that. I may not know what’s in store for me and I may think it’s this one road I am journeying down, but when the fork in the road appears, I know that I am going to be willing to go down the one that is centered in what God wants. I can only know that by virtue of the Gospel.