What are you really seeking?
Let's be real--you don't grow sitting in an easy chair. Sometimes I get people complaining that this path is so hard, and to that, I say, "every path is hard." It is hard to grow and change, and it is also hard to not grow and change.
For most of us, growth doesn't occur when we are comfortable. We have to be uncomfortable enough that moving into the unknown feels more comfortable than the known. We want to move out of our discomfort and arrive at that elusive place where everything finally feels easy. But what if that place is somewhere we can dance for a few fleeting moments but was never meant to be a final destination?
This is where a mental shift can help us find joy in the ever-changing path of life. What are you truly searching for? Are we really searching for the next place where we can be comfortable? If so, we may find ourselves trapped in a cycle of temporary relief followed by the next challenge. That is simply survival.
I think we are searching for something more lasting than a rest on a couch until the next crisis--we are searching for flow.
We embrace growth and change because they bring us closer to God and to one another. We are essentially living on a sailboat, and while we cannot control the wind, we are absolutely capable of harnessing the wind's power on this adventure. We can expect to get wind burned and sun burned and who knows what else. We aren't expecting a boat to be a couch.
If we sit and focus on how hard things are, we become frozen in the experience of hardship. But when we hold onto God in the hard and understand that everyone has hard, and that this is part of the journey, we begin to see the 10,000 miracles around us. Difficulty is not a detour; it is simply a part of the journey.
So I leave you with this: are you seeking comfort or connection? Do you really want the path to be easy, or do you want to learn to breathe while you do difficult things? Do you want to be comfortable, or do you want to transform?
The richest and deepest lives are not the easiest ones. They are the ones in which we remain open.
~c
This Week’s Reflection
“True leadership is service, not control.”
Featured Photo by Violet
Violet captured this photo the other night, while standing out in the rain at our homestead. In the moment, it looked like brief flashes of lightening across horizon. And while I went into the comfort of the house to cook, she stood out taking long-exposure photographs. This type of image widens time, and what was simply a flash of light in real time became something much more detailed and striking through her lens. The camera freezes what is too fast for our eyes to see. It reminds me of how God works our lives. The simple, fleeting things that just pass can become such big events years down the road. You might not see them until you look back at your life. You didn't miss the obvious thing--you simply have perspective.