I’m sick of being comfortable.

We only have so much time on this earth. Do we want to spend it trying to hide from the world and closing ourselves into a protective bubble? Do we want to spend it stuck in the dramatics and hurt of the world? Do we want to spend it fighting God’s will and fruitlessly making up our own rules? I mean, as Christians we are supposed to be radical. We are here to be an example of Christ. Therefor, we should not avoid the world around us and pretend it isn’t there. Who did Jesus hang out with? He didn’t hide out in his church and only hang out with his disciples. He did quite the opposite. When Jesus was spending time with people he was spending time with people who were caught up in their culture. Yet, in His time with them he wasn’t joining them in their sin. His interactions with them were to love these people, and to reach out to these people. So, as Christians we aren’t to hide out in our churches or small groups. We can have non-Christian friends. We should have non-Christian friends. Now, this is hard for a lot of Christians because they want to have these relationships, but we don’t know how to have them. Mostly, because they’ve been sheltered from the ‘secular’ world and don’t know how to interact in it. Now, I understand that many people raised in the church don’t feel the need to leave their church. They are surrounded with longtime friends, it’s formilliar territory, and they are surrounded by people who share their beliefs. But, think about this for a minute. By staying in your church who are you impacting? Your surrounded by believers, and your in your comfort zone. I don’t remember Jesus being in many situations i’d consider a ‘comfort zones.’ This is why I think it is so important to be able to have non-Christian friendships. And I’ll just say this once but I mean it: People are not projects. Don’t ever think of someone as one, and do not ever call anyone your project. Now, this is where it gets hard. People think if they have relationships with non-Christians that they will be influenced negatively. This is so false I can’t even tell you. I have gained some of the most interesting insight from my non-Christian friends. By discussing my beliefs with them, answering their questions, and challenging each other with intelligent conversation it has caused me to grow, and figure out a lot of things about myself and my beliefs. And I know that it has an impact on them as well. It is great for them to see someone they respect and know be a believer and be willing to share some knowledge with them. These relationships are great opportunities for me to share my beliefs with non- believers which is a good thing to practice. For most believers the idea of sharing their faith is a pretty intimidating thing. But, if you have these interactions with people you know and trust, after some time it becomes second nature to you, which it should be! It is just so frustrating when I see a group of amazing Christian kids, living out the word and wanting to grow in their faith. But, they keep it between themselves. Maybe the occasionally talk to a kid at school and the religion topic comes up in a conversation. But, that’s about as far as their outreach goes. What good is our faith if we aren’t willing to express it and share it outside of our comfort zone? So many people call themselves ‘Missional Christians,” but they are not pressing themselves to go outside their comfort zones. They are just comfortabley sitting in the church and talking about these ideas. I once heard a pastor that I greatly respect talk about this. He was discussing the idea of being an example of Christ, and our responsibilities as Christians, and how our actions should reflect our beliefs so that we can share our beliefs honestly and openly. He said that if we aren’t influencing people we are harming them. That by our actions, or lack of actions we have the power to do them harm. He asked, “Whose life are you willing to risk?” Man, that struck me hard. Whose life are we willing to risk because we didn’t reach out to them? Whose life are we willing to risk by setting a poor example? This is radical, but it is true. Now, there are some people who think ‘stepping outside of your comfort zone’ as a Christian mean making other people uncomfortable as well. I cringe at these people’s tactics. These are the kind of people who confront stranger in parks by asking them, “If you died today would you go to heaven or hell?” Though these peoples’ intentions might be good, I’m not sure they are doing much good. Scaring people into religion is no way to go about this. I mean, these people are being confronted with scare tactics of course they will comply with your little booklets and take the pamphlet for your church service. But, in reality they aren’t building a relationship with God. After all, Christianity is a relationship not a religion.

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