Becoming Comfortable Doing the Uncomfortable

A long time back a mentor of mine, Loehle Gast used to tell me that successful people are those who do the things failures don't like to do.

 

In a way, it's uncomfortable to do the right and courageous things.  Leaders become comfortable doing the courageous uncomfortable.  Easy comfortable desirable methods lead to uneasy uncomfortable undesirable results. 

 

I must be really successful because I find myself more and more in situations that I am really out of my realm on.  Why I don't know.  I do know that I know that I know I am supposed to be right here in the middle of the deep water.  I feel like the man led into deep water in Ezekiel 47:  

 

1 In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. 2 The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.

 3 Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. 4 He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. 5 Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.

I'm swimming in the will of God.

Some time ago I began to get a vision for an answer to Islam by the Testimony of Jesus.  That vision is becoming reality.  Before my very eyes.  It's changing.  It's morphing into what God wants it to be.

 

So, I will do what he calls me to do. 

 

I reflected on this when I heard about the shootings in Dekalb yesterday.  I saw on TV student prayer going on outside the halls.  I know there is a significant Christian presence there.  I know some of them.  I was glad BUT---

 

I reflected on that crisis like all the others how shows of faith in the heat seem right.  But are they?  Faith isn't faith when that's the only response left.  Courage isn't courage when there is no other option.  When a man escapes from a burning building risking pain that's not courage.  That takes nothing away from the scared kids that crept from the room on their bellies.  But to call them courageous is not accurate.  Survival is what it was. 

 

I'm not a pastor, I'm a prophet.  My thoughts during last nights news cast watching the horror of the situation and people's response I reflected on 9-11 and the aftermath spiritually.

 

The weeks right after 9-11 the churches were full.   Within a couple months people went back to worrying about Paris Hilton's antics.

 

The churches emptied out.  WHY?  They didn't get what they really needed from the churches at that time.  What they needed was not comfort, but a warning of the need for repentance and salvation.  A harsh warning.  A strong warning.  That's why Pastors sometimes aren't best to lead the church at those times.  Sometimes a strong word is what is needed.  Pastors want to comfort when a strong word is needed.

 

Because they didn't get that word they wandered back  to the world and the opportunity was lost.  They are twice as worse hardened to the gospel next time.  We as Christians did them no good.

 

I won't offer consolation for those who are in pain over this situation other than the consolation of Jesus. 

 

In the Bible His disciples asked him about a disaster that happened near them.  They were asking the questions that people in Dekalb are asking right now.  WHY.

 

Here's what happened.

Luke 13: 1-9

Repent or Perish

 1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

 6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

 8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

I'm midrashing that if Jesus were here bodily and his disciples came to him for comfort about the killings at NIU in DeKalb he would say the same thing.

If our pastors in our churches on Sunday in our area would say the same thing to the sheep in their care instead of trying to salve the wounds perhaps the impact that crisis should have, bringing people to repentance wouldn't be wasted. 

We wasted 9-11 as an opportunity to reach people, let's not waste this.