Lean Into It

I was recently speaking with a dear friend of mine, who is in ministry, and she said this :

"Lean into the Discomfort of the work." 

Lean into it?! For any normal human, discomfort is something we tend to stay far away from. It's why a lot of people are resistant to change. We don't like doing new things,  making new friends, switching sunday school classes, or addressing behavioral issues of another mother's child. It's uncomfortable, so we just won't talk about it. Or we just won't do it.


Let me create a scene for you:

A group of high-school girls gather together for bible study. All of who are struggling in their own way through alcohol, body image, self esteem, self worth, and issues in sexual temptation and lust. These are all buried underneath, never spoken of. The girls look at one another and talk about scripture weekly as if everything is perfect in their lives, they have no issues, no struggles and no underlying currant of fear and insecurity in their lives. Their leader struggles with an serious lack of self-worth and value but it is never spoken of or revealed.  She has major difficulties in her relationships but they are never spoken of. There is absolutely no vulnerability shown by the leader. She seems to have it all together, she comes to meetings every week and leaves happy go- lucky never revealing her inner instability to anyone. That leader soon leaves and a new leader comes.

A new leader steps in to pick up the pieces. This leader lays her flaws on the table immediately during their first gathering.  In high school, she had struggled with alcohol, self worth, and sexual temptation. She makes herself completely vulnerable from the first meeting WITHOUT knowing what feelings were about to be reciprocated. Guess what happened? Once the leader of this group of girls set the example of exposing the not so pretty things about herself, the girls followed.  Things were not all well and good... in fact, there was a lot of brokenness and a lot of girls were dealing with the same issues without realizing it... they hadn't talked about it!



I'm here to tell you,  parents, leaders, grandparents, mentors, you set the tone. If you want your kids to talk to you about the tough stuff, don't paint a beautiful picture of how holy you were in high school. If you want your kids to come to you about their pornography addiction, you better start showing to your children that you, in fact, struggle too. There are ways to limit how much you reveal as age appropriately as possible. But, the more you make yourself vulnerable to your children, the more they are going to reciprocate. LEAN INTO the discomfort. Don't let the discomfort take over your home, your conversations, your parenting or leadership.

Jesus Christ I'm sure was most uncomfortable when spending time with the beggars, blind, tax collectors and the prostitutes. If I had to guess,  spending time with those on the "outside" wasn't most comfortable. But, as we learn, people take note! There are recordings of Jesus going outside his human comfort zone and turning people into followers of The Way. Oh, if only we could show and model for our children going outside of our discomfort. It's a challenge to you... and to me everyday as I'm faced with the tough issues, issues at home, school, issues on the internet or EVEN issues with video games. If it were a perfect Elizabeth world, I wouldn't feel the call to address them. But, by the overwhelming grace and calling of God, I do.

Lean into it friends, or better yet, run into it. Don't let the discomfort DIScourage you. It's where change, growth, renewal and cleansing happens. Look for it!