Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. (James 1:2-4 NLT).

Welcome, come in and sit down. Make yourself uncomfortable. Have you ever greeted a guest at your door that way? I haven’t either, but maybe we should consider doing so. Personal growth comes when we push through discomfort. Some say life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Yet think of the time and energy we spend keeping ourselves comfortable. I know I often expend my energy to stay in my comfort zone. At home and work I resist change. Eating the same foods, going to the same restaurants, using the same services and businesses, and associating with the same people, all these keep us feeling comfortable.

But with hindsight I recognize that the major leaps of growth in my life always followed periods of discomfort. Familiar surroundings and situations allow us to live in a sort of autopilot mode. Do you take the same route to work every day? Have you ever realized half way there that you don’t recall getting where you are? You just navigated a familiar route with little conscious effort. Which situation do you associate with adventure, the routine or the new and unknown? Which do you call boring, endless repetition of that which we always do or trying something we’ve never done before?

Now I’m not suggesting that our lives should be one constant adventure. The routine, the known, helps us to complete our daily tasks with minimal energy output. Calmness and quiet are conducive to meditation and introspection, important to our understanding. But living full time in a comfort zone equates to a life with little growth and growth is why we’re here. So don’t always strive to be comfortable. Strive instead for some regular discomfort in your life. Think of it as a stretching.

Most of us are operating below our highest self. So we’re comfortable at our current level because it’s familiar. But joy comes when we’re being our highest self. The transition in between, a necessary stepping-stone, is uncomfortable. We’re out of the familiar, but not yet at the joyous level of highest self. Welcome that feeling of discomfort as an opportunity to advance your life.

The old adage “no pain, no gain” may contain more truth than we might have imagined. Trust the Lord to work it all together for good in your life and live in the joy!