Early this morning I put the kettle on to heat water for oatmeal. I was in another room when it proceeded to boil and whistle. The whistling sound disturbed my dogs. I had never given it any thought before but I suppose the high pitch sound was offensive to their sensitive ears. Once the kettle was removed from the heat source, the whistling stopped and so did the complaining from the dogs.
My preferred way to make oatmeal is to pour boiling water on the oats, cover them off heat and just let the water be absorbed, not cooked. I like the Old Fashioned oats because the texture is retained. My Honey has a different preference. His mom cooked the oatmeal in a pot, and then mixed it with sugar and enough milk to make it drinkable from a glass. Generations have been raised on instant oatmeal and know it in no other form.
Oatmeal is a comfort food but we lose the comfort factor if it is prepared differently than the way with which we are familiar. Familiarity, I have decided, is what makes our comfort food a comfort food. Comfort, then, is relative.
The preparation of oatmeal does not really hit the radar of life altering issues but the theory of how, why and what we find comfortable in our spiritual life does.
For some, the mere mention of ‘spiritual life’ is a foreign term and they squirm in discomfort. Some may have a foundation in a solemn, ritualistic form of spiritual worship. Others may have a foundation built on a more casual, relaxed form of congregational worship. Regardless, take them out of that setting and they are most certainly not in their comfort zone. I invited a friend to church years ago and afterward she commented that it required more audience participation than she liked. She was out of her comfort zone. She did not come back.
It seems to me that we may be doing ourselves a disservice when we lock ourselves into the small circle we call our comfort zone. While we may roam about freely within that circle, we are choosing not to discover or experience anything outside the circle. Who knows, perhaps our circle of comfort would be increased, our zone expanded if we did not cling so tenaciously to the rope that tethers us to the center of our comfort circle. Often, the comfort zone circle does not even offer true comfort, but merely clothes us in familiarity. Possible change scares the bejebbers out of some; so much so, they choose to hold on to painful or disappointing albeit familiar ways rather than face risk outside of their comfort zone. And, yes, this is even true regarding our choices in worshiping the Lord.
My God is infinite…omnipotent…omnipresent…alpha and omega...does it stand to reason then that He would have us be so limited in how we relate to or worship Him?
In our Christian faith we know from scripture that Jesus certainly ventured outside his comfort zone from the day he took the form of man until he was once again seated at the side of his Father. He called men out of their comfort zones to follow Him. The fishermen dropped their nets, the tax collector walked away from his records, the doctor left his patients and they all ventured into a nomadic life of miracles and teachings from Jesus Christ, the likes of which they were unfamiliar. Not one comfort zone in sight.
This brings me back to the whistling tea kettle. I don’t imagine the water, if it could talk, would say the boiling to make steam for the whistle was a comfortable situation. But because of it, dried oats are transformed into nourishment, dried tea leaves become a soothing beverage, hard vegetables and beans become more edible, dirty dishes and bodies are cleaned and germs are killed. The process and experience for the water may be harsh but the end result is life giving. Our Lord, the Living Water, went through much the same so we can have eternal life. Yet, like our dogs, we whine and cry when faced with discomfort and rush back to the familiar comfort zone we have created for ourselves as quickly as possible.
I’m wondering if we really can follow after Christ if we insist on staying in our comfort zone. Something to think about……
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