Skip to main content

At Ease

In these days of a global pandemic and rampant social unrest, it is easy to feel like our world is falling apart.

For me personally, it also seems that my old “normals” have been turned upside down.  Along with that, I’ve been realizing that my preference is often just to be comfortable.  And whatever level of comfort I had before all this just seems to be a vague memory.

I looked up the definition of comfort.  It includes:  “contented well-being, a satisfying or enjoyable experience.”

A similar word to comfort is “ease”.  One aspect of that word is the absence of difficulty.  That, in fact, is how the word is used in the book of Job:  “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”  (Job 3:26).  That missing quietness, that lack of rest, that dread of trouble coming, all contribute to feeling of being not at ease. 

But I’m not sure that being at ease should be my goal or focus in life.  Again, in the book of Job, we find that our desire to be at ease can impact our perspective:  “In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune”…  (Job 12:5).  When we just want to be at ease, we resent it when troubles or difficulties or misfortunes come.  Even more so, we tend to look at those things with contempt. 

It also appears from the book of Job that God may, at times, work to move us away from our clinging to our desire to be at ease:  “I was at ease, and he broke me apart”…  (Job 16:12).  I don’t think this means that God is a cosmic kill joy but it points to the truth that He knows when we’ve allowed our desire to be at ease to become too important to us.

Many of us would probably not normally welcome difficulties, troubles and misfortunes but we know, or at least should know, that they are a part of life.  And not only that, but they are part of what God uses to work in our lives.  In Romans 5:3-4, we find the following:  “Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.”

While I might desire to be comfortable and at ease, I don’t think God is necessarily supportive of those desires.  On the contrary, it seems that God is more committed to using difficulties, troubles, misfortunes and sufferings to build my character!  And the really good news in that is this character building process somehow produces hope.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...
1 comment
Read more

Don't Get Tripped Up

I do enjoy traveling and I keep an eye out for good prices. I also enjoy looking at trends in travel. For a while, the travel industry focused their advertising on taking those trips that might be on your bucket list.   That faded a bit and I started seeing ads about taking the trip of a lifetime. I guess both those campaigns have been waning since I’ve been seeing information about taking an “epic” trip.   Recently I noticed the phrase “unforgettable trip” in advertising.   More recently, I’ve been seeing promotions about taking “sustainable” trips and even “reconnecting to our roots” trips. As I’ve been pondering these advertising campaigns, I thought I’d consider what their ideas encompass and then look at them from a spiritual perspective: 1.   “ Bucket list trips ” are based on a list of the experiences a person might hope to have before they “kick the bucket” (i.e. die).   While I can certainly come up with a bucket list of trips, I’m thinking a bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Above My Pay Grade!

We like things that we can study, know and understand.  Sometimes we find it difficult to accept that there are things that might be hidden from our knowledge and understanding. The Scriptures indicate that there are some things hidden by design:  “The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.”  (Deut 29:29) Some versions of the Bible translate the hidden things as “secret things”.  Regardless, there are things which have been revealed and things which are kept hidden from us and remain secret. We may chafe at having to deal with the fact that some things remain hidden, but that’s often when faith and trust come in.  The Psalmist wrote:   “O Lord , my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”  (Ps 131:1) The Psalmist seem to realize that th...
Post a Comment
Read more