When your comfort zone gets the squeeze!

Responding and growing through change

Pastor Hans Voortman

A generation ago Bob Dylan sang "The times they are a changin". Rapid change has certainly marked this end of the twentieth century. Yet for all the innovation and excitement of change, there are many who hanker for the "good ol' days"! Unable to cope with life in the fast lane, the growing cry is "Stop the world, I want to get off!" - and so, increasingly, many have. They strive for alternative lifestyles with a "back to nature" emphasis, architectural styles and fashions that mimic bygone eras. Even the revival of old time movies and "easy listening" radio stations with music formats of the 60's and 70's project the sentiment that nostalgia is in!

When it comes to the church, there too, despite a culture with a fundamental message of change - a community whose number one aim is to lead people to be "born again" - the insecurity of the unknown and the comfort of the predictable has caused a resistance to change. This community of faith, that by its very nature is intended to be on the cutting edge, is noted instead for its conservatism, stultified existence and old fashioned atmosphere. In fact they say the seven dying words of the church are, "We don't do things that way here!"

Faith is supposed to take you out on a limb. The gospel message declares "all things are made new. Old things are passed away" (2 Cor 5:17). The apostle Paul said "For this I strive, leaving what is behind I press on to what is ahead" (Phil 3:13). Faith creates that sort of momentum. It is "the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen" (Heb. 11:1).

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

So how do you handle change? How much does your faith take you out on a limb? How do you handle it when your comfort zones get the squeeze?

The story is told of a Swiss watchmaker in the late 1960's who, at the World Trade Fair in Geneva, introduced the quartz watch. He was ridiculed by his peers, who figured that nothing would challenge the superiority of Swiss hand crafted, precision mechanical engineering. Well Seiko picked up the world patent on the idea and, as they say, "the rest is history"! In the 1960's the Swiss controlled 60% of the world market and 80% of the income from watchmaking. By the mid 1970's they controlled only 10% of the market and 8% of the income. Altogether, 135,000 Swiss watch manufacturers were made redundant, because of resistance to change.

It's so easy to resist change. We all have our comfort zones. And so we retreat rather than progressing. Our thinking and lifestyle become regressive rather than progressive. One of the laws of nature is the Law of Entropy. It declares that things move from order to disorder. To resist change requires no more than doing nothing! Things wind down quickly in our lives. It takes a continued commitment to embrace change in order to maintain the freshness in our lives. The most dangerous time in our Christian lives is invariably when we start to feel comfortable. Very soon we move to living in the here and now. Our focus becomes inward and our concern quickly becomes the stuff of this world. The law of Spiritual Entropy leads to spiritual atrophy! Rigor mortis of the soul sets in!

THE ORIENTATION OF OUR LIVES

True Christianity has always had an orientation that advances. It looks forward. Its concern is with what lies ahead. Its focus is toward what has not yet been achieved. From the great commission to the second coming, there is always something to look forward to. There's no room for complacency or satisfaction with the status quo. Christianity is a radical faith, that should stir our comfort zones and cause us to look ahead.

On the other hand religion is stodgy, stick in the mud, and conservative. It is the human response to a Godly message of change. It is about structuring and controlling this message. It institutionalises it into forms and rituals that replace faith with works. The Apostle Paul described it as "Having the form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). Religion is typified by resistance and a hankering for the past. The effect is to cause one to live life in reverse, retrospectively drawn into an ever narrowing world. Christianity is exocentric in nature, ever expanding in its vistas, but religion is egocentric, narrowing and finally consumes itself in the self-absorption of a "me and my needs" world.

What is needed in today's church is nothing short of a reforming spirit, that arrests the self centredness of much of our gospel message and institutes a fresh faith that is outward in its perspective. We have spent too long navel gazing and allowing a "bless me club" to be substituted for God's blueprint of radical discipleship. Largely this is because we've resisted change.

It's time to break loose from this mentality. It has undermined God's covenant people throughout its history. It's the spirit that wants to return to Egypt (Numb 11:4). When Moses led the children of Israel forward in a rapid season of change, the people resisted. Their destiny was to be brought from slavery to inherit the promised land. Yet, faced with the promise of better days ahead, the mentality of the Israelites caused them to look back and hunger again for the meat, leeks and garlic of Egypt (Num. 11: 4-6). It's the security of the familiar that so often seduces us to live life retrospectively. The past seems safe, familiar and secure, with no need for faith. But it leads ultimately to a life that falls short of the promised land, languishing instead in the poor substitute of aimless wilderness wanderings.

So what's the orientation of your life? The Christian life is meant to be lived by faith! "Whatever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). If you want to take hold of the future, you must let go of the past! How far do you think you can get driving a car by forever looking through the rear vision mirror? The occasional glance to maintain your bearings is warranted, but you advance by taking in the front windscreen perspective.

The "big picture" is always out in front of you. You can't change where you've been, but you can still determine where you are going to go with your life. So in faith embrace the unknown and approach the future with a profound sense of wonder and excitement at what God is up to with your life. Remember, He ". is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us" (Eph. 3:20).

GROWING THROUGH CHANGE

Are you wanting to grow through change? Here are some ways that I have found useful in maintaining an openness to change. They've even helped me to accept it when my comfort zones get the squeeze!

1. Anticipate continual change.

Develop an attitude to life that never rests on its laurels. The apostle Paul said " . we are being changed from glory to glory" (2 Cor 3:18). And it won't stop until Jesus' return, so you'd better get used to the feeling! See it as a sure sign that God is with you and is at work in you. Remember He ruffles your feathers. He stirs the nest to make you grow. Remember, "Have faith in God. All things are possible" (Mt. 21:21). Continue to determine to "Trust in the Lord. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths" (Prov. 3:5).

Here's a little formula I remember whenever I feel the fear of change rising up within me:

As fears occur admit them

As you admit them, commit them

As you commit them, release them

As you release them, resist them

As you resist them, stand firm.

2. Place new value on change.

Stop seeing change as something to be feared or avoided. Rather, realise that it is ". God at work in you, causing you to will and to do his good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). God has no dastardly desire to make your life miserable or keep you in check. Rather He wants you to grow.

Change keeps things fresh. A stagnant pool causes death; a bubbling spring creates an oasis of life. God has no interest in allowing you to become a rusty tap through lack of use. For you to be a spring of living water, He will need to continue to flow through you. And His presence always instigates change.

Change releases your life into new levels of creativity. As a pot-bound plant needs freeing, so God often cracks open our lives to release us into greater vigour and productivity. Just look at the way He dealt with Moses, Abraham or Joseph (Gen. 21-22, Ex. 3-5, Gen. 37-42). Each one of them felt like Gideon did when he declared, "How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest and I am the least in my family" (Ju. 6:15). But God saw them differently. He was to release them into a new blueprint for their lives - a "God-print" of His destiny for their futures. Certainly their comfort zones got the squeeze, but what fruitfulness flowed out of these unworthy vessels as they surrendered to God's dealings in their lives.

We, like them, need to learn through the environment of continual change, that most salient lesson of the Christian life: " I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:13). We need to remember that "God has taken the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (1 Cor. 1:27) and that we need " to decrease so that He might increase" (Jn. 3:30).

Change breaks the self reliance that can so easily grip us, and by faith we are challenged again to maintain a lifestyle of dependence on Him. So stop seeing change as an enemy and learn to embrace it as a friend sent by God to release your life into greater levels of faith and effectiveness.

3. Generally, you'll go through change slowly.

Be suspicious of too rapid change. It tends to be the way of the Devil! It took Noah 120 years to realise the fruits of this lifestyle of change. For Abraham it was a 100 years wait. Moses got used to a "forty year God".

God's time frame for our lives is influenced by His eternal nature. Whereas He is committed to changing us, He tends to do it by degrees. Slow change is usually lasting change. In His sovereignty, of course, He can bring about change overnight, but its not the Biblical norm. So be ready to grow through change slowly.

Carl Jung said "Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil"! The prophet Isaiah declared, "They who believe, haste not" (Isa. 28:16). Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline writes "superficiality is the curse of this age. The desperate need is not for more intelligent or gifted people but for deep people." It takes three months to grow a squash, but 300 years to grow a giant oak!

God is wanting to build people of substance, who live deep - and that sort of change doesn't happen overnight. So be ready not only to be open to a lifestyle of change, but also to accept that the rate of change may at times be imperceptible. Remind yourself, "God is at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).

CONCLUSION

Instead of protecting your life, release yourself - your comfort zone is made to be squeezed! God knows what He's doing. He has ". good plans for you . plans to give you a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).

Boats in the harbour are safe, but that's not what boats are made for. So with your life, determine to launch out into the deep. Break loose from your comfort zones and grab hold of change with both hands. Don't hoard your life but be prepared to sow it and invest it. Jesus said, "Freely you have received, now freely give" (Mt. 10:8). Don't throw away your confidence (Heb. 10:35). "The times they are a changin," but when your life is built on the rock, even when all around is shifting sand (Mt. 7:26), "nothing shall by any means harm you" (1 Jn. 5:18). With God in control change is always for the better!

"I am the Lord. I do not change." (Mal. 3:6)

"The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you . and you will be changed into a different person." (1 Sam. 10:6)