When I was a senior in high school I went on a retreat with my church youth group. At that retreat the speaker shared an analogy that will stick with me until the day I die. An analogy that is worth hearing, no matter your faith, background, belief, or disbelief. This analogy has changed the way I look at life and it has showed me how to live the life I want to live.
Imagine that you are in a room of light switches. A room where every free space has a light switch. Now, as you can imagine, a room with that many light switches is bound to get very bright. As a result you turn off one of those lights, to dim the brightness. And then you get more comfortable, so you turn off another light, and another, and another, until you are comfortable with the amount of light in the room.
When you look at this situation it seems like a good thing; you know what you like, what you’re comfortable with (that word will be coming up a lot, comfortable. You might want to become acquainted, but be careful to not befriend the word.) anyway, in this room you have created your sanctuary, your safety from the world.
And there lies the problem.
What you do not realize is that each one of those light switches is sin. Every time a light switch is turned off a sin is committed. You then become comfortable with that sin, and once you become comfortable you don’t want to turn the light back on, you don’t want to grow closer to God, you like where you are and don’t see any reason to change, because you are comfortable.
As life goes on you crave more comfort, so you turn off more lights, you sin more, you fall away from God.
Then, one day, weekend, week, month, you go on a retreat, a mission trip, an adventure to learn more about God. You turn on one, two, three of those lights and it’s painful, but for that time, the pain is so worth it, you cry, you learn, you grow. You leave your comfort zone and see what life in the light can be.
Maybe that light lasts, maybe it becomes too much and the dark becomes appealing again. You are home from your adventure now, you left your comfort zone and you want nothing more than to re enter that room of darkness, where you can be comfortable.
And that is why I hate being comfortable.
Being comfortable is terrifying. You don’t realize that you are in the dark, you think life is ‘business as usual’ you look at your life; work, school, relationships (family, friends, romantic, colleagues), even the media that you consume. You might not realize it but you could be living in so much darkness.
That is why I do things that I don’t want to do. I pray, I am a bad listener, as all humans are, but I do my best to hear what God wants me to do, and I know that He has me right where I need to be, no matter how much I want to be somewhere else, with different people, doing different work. I try as hard as I can to make myself uncomfortable, because no matter how much comfort I can feel in the dark, life is so much better in the light.
I challenge you to do the same. Turn on a light switch, adjust your eyes to the light, and right when you think you’re going to become comfortable, when you think you’ve grown ‘close enough’ to God, turn on another light, and another, and another. I can’t say all those lights will stay on; after all, we are only human.
But always remember this; no matter how many lights you turn off, there will always been more light switches to turn on, I never said how large this room was, and lucky for you, God is everlasting.
Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable, life might be nice in the dark, but it’s so much better in the light.
