Friday, August 27, 2010

The Comfort Zone

I'm 37 weeks pregnant today. So technically that means I'm full term. The baby could come any day and be fine. It could be today.

The thought of being mom in a few weeks (or days!) is both incredibly exciting and totally intimidating. See, I'm by nature a comfort zone person. I like the idea of change more than I like change itself. I mean, look at my life. I've worked at the same place for 10 years. I live in the city I was born and raised in. Heck, I even married someone whose name is the same as both my mom and my dad's. And my brother's. And mine. Obviously, I like my comfort zone where it's safe and secure. And nothing is unknown.

But I've discovered something disturbing about the comfort zone. There is a distinct lack of faith there. In a place where I am totally safe and secure and everything is known, I have no need for God. I am not stretched. I have no reason to grow or change. It's comfortable, yes, but stagnant. And honestly, a little boring. Living in the comfort zone does not allow me to have the abundant life that Jesus talks about.

That's why, although I have literally no idea what I'm doing when it comes to things like labor, childbirth and raising a child, I'm looking forward to the approaching challenges with great excitement! And although I've had some pretty big moments of failure in this recently, I'm trying to keep the fear at bay. Because there's no way, even if it were possible at this point, that I want to stay in the comfortable, safe place I've been. I need this if I'm going to grow.

God is calling me to bigger things. He's calling me out of my safe place to a place of unknown.

3 comments:

Christer said...

Cool. I'm a comfort zone type too. Every once in a while I get the itch to experience something different though ... usually I don't scratch. Actually, I've probably never really scratched.

But it's those unavoidable stretches outside the CZ that really cause us to grow. Whether we like it or not. And usually, in retrospect we end end up liking the growth, no matter how difficult is was at the time.

I'm learning to live in and love that stretching and growth, especially the specific kind you're experiencing/about to experience (well, not the physical stretching/growth).

It's fun. You're gonna love it. And be good at it. I can't wait.

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited for you! None of us has any idea what we're doing when we become parents. Everything sounds good in theory but reality never quite works out that way. I have three kids and I still don't know what I'm doing! But God does. Rely on him and the stretching will get easier over time. :)

Costa Rica Tours said...

Wow! I am excited for you, it must be a great feeling as a mum to be, you can actually connect to your baby by feeling him/her moving and also talking to it.