My life of comfort

Last night I was on the couch.  I had the television on flipping back and forth between baseball and football, paying little attention to either.  I had just made a pot of decaf coffee and had some cheese sticks baking in the oven.  I was thinking about my life of comfort.  And I’m not making this up – a short time later I heard Diane on the phone talking to a friend whose church is getting ready to cushion their pews.

At the same time, missionary friends shared a post about the difficulty of being a sojourner. You can read that here.  By a sojourner, I mean a person in a place that’s not really their home.  Yet when they are a missionary for a while, “back home” isn’t even their home anymore.

The most difficult part of being a Christian in America for me is living with my comfort.  (Insert “church people” joke here).  I don’t know if you have ever thought about this yourself or if you just think I’m crazy.  And it’s not that I yearn for a difficult life.

Sometimes I just wonder why God has given me this life of comfort.

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I’m reminded of the following prayer, known as the Wesley Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

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