As we flip the calendar into September, I’m getting excited for fall….football, cool air, colorful leaves, and routine.
I don’t know about you but I’m always more than ready to return to my routine, my comfortable rut! Guess I’ve always been a creature of habit.
Summer beings vacation. Vacation means breaking out of the ordinary, traveling to foreign lands experiencing the “good things in life”, enjoying friends visiting that I haven’t seen for years, and summer sports, especially on the water. Vacation brings MORE “fun” – travel, food, drinks, sports, friends, etc.
Perhaps this MORE is too much of a good thing if I listen to my body and mind clamoring for a rest: “let’s get back to normal”.
We find comfort in the familiar. It’s a safe environment that we can control. It’s our cocoon of calm giving us the solace that we long for. (“Eternal Rest comes to mind!)
BUT, just as I’m ready to settle in for a “long winter’s nap”, the words of Neale Donald Walsch come to mind:
“Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.”
I think we have all lived long enough to know that to be true, first hand. For better or worse.
Nothing has been gained, learned, achieved in that “comfy cozy” zone. Life is born breaking out of the shell. It begins within, pecking our way out. We move from the “aha” moment with a new idea into a new level of experience.
Other times outside circumstances cause us to change, move, or adapt. Situations, for better or worse, call forth a new courage, a broader understanding, or unfamiliar bravery.
But wherever the growth nudge comes from, the situation will call for us to rely on our Faith and Hope.
Have Faith that there is a Bigger Picture with the unseen plan of God at work.
And keep the Hope that the best is yet to come.
In my book, “G-vites ~ Everyday Invitations From God”, I share my short prayer expressing my faith and hope in God’s will, not mine:
“Whatever, Whenever, However, and Forever Grateful”
Meditate on the meaning of these few words giving it up to Something bigger than yourself. Tuck this prayer in your pocket and when you feel “out of your comfort zone” put it in the hands of God.
“Play ball” but remember that when change suddenly occurs pulling you out of your comfort zone, it’s an invitation for growth.
What’s your “comfort zone”?
