Lil Wayne once said in one of his songs,”Don’t you ever get too comfortable.” I never thought Jesus would speak to me through a rap song, but He’s always surprising me with His weird sense of humor.
Being in Africa is like being on another planet. Everything is different…even the little things like washing clothes and brushing my teeth. I get looks from people here like I’m some kind of freaky alien creature that they don’t know whether to run up to and touch or scream and run away from.
Since being here, I’ve been stripped of a lot of comforts. Our first few weeks here, my queen size bed was replaced with a double bed that I shared, my daily 20 minute hot showers were replaced by freezing five minute showers every three or four days, and breakfast consisted of andazi and a banana instead of my usual cereal and protein shake.
While I finally started to get the swing of things and the Highway Motel was starting to feel more like home, God once again reminded me of the wise words of Weezy F. Baby.
About a week ago, my team and I moved from our cozy little motel into an old school that has no electricity, no showers, and no real toilets. Once again, I was stripped of the comforts that I had become accustomed to.
To be honest, though, I’ve learned to embrace discomfort. With every comfort that I lose, I’m pushed further into the arms of Jesus. I’m learning not to just step outside of my comfort zone but to sprint full speed as far from it as I can.
As soon as I begin to develop some kind of routine, I’m thrown into something scary and new.
The same is true with my relationship with God: as soon as I think I’ve got His character down-pat, He completely blows me out of the water by showing me a whole new side of Him.
Now, I yearn for that. I want to do things that scare me. I want to be put in awkward situations. I want to be uncomfortable.
And whether God speaks to you in dreams, during prayer, or in a Lil Wayne song, I encourage you to break your routine and try something new and uncomfortable too.
It may be scary and a little foreign at first, but Jesus will bless you and grow you in ways that you never even imagined, and that’s pretty dang sweet.
