recliner christianity

I really like comfort. I strive for it. I like to sit on my comfortable couch and watch TV. I go out of my way to avoid being unfomfortable.

Am I alone here? I don't think that I am. My guess is that most of us are that way. Give us a choice to be either comfortable or uncomfortable and most will choose comfort.

I think that the idea of comfort has crept into Western Christianity. Just from a physical service standpoint: we get comfy chairs or pews, nice songs, neatly packaged sermons designed to help us live good lives. If any of these things are out of whack, the church staff will hear about it. Ever hear a pastor say something controversial from the pulpit (and by controversial I mean something along the lines of "you want to follow Jesus? Sell everything you have and prepare to die") and you can almost hear people getting uncomfortable and mad.

Looking back at my life, it is always the times when I was uncomfortable that I saw God really work. It doesn't take much faith to sit in my spiritual recliner and hope to be blessed by God.

I can still clearly remember my trip to Maroc, walking in the markets of Marrakech. I don't think I have ever been more uncomfortable in my whole life, and I don't think that I have ever had such a deep spiritual experience. It was so profound that it's still with me 28 years later.

I remember being asked to take the lead in pray with people in a camp meeting at Stayner, trusting God to know how to pray for healing & restoration. Again, not the most comfortable, but profound.

These are just a couple of examples... but each time I am willing to get up off my spiritual recliner, God seems to do profound things in me and in others.

I can't help believe that this is one way God works. I picture the call of Abram and God telling him to get up and move.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

So Abram left, as the LORD had told him;

This must have been difficult for Abram to do, but I guess if it were easy, it wouldn't require faith... or God.

I just wish sometimes that God would continue to transform me while I relaxed on my christian recliner.