Comfort Zone

If you didn't see Elf (again) over the holiday season, you're missing a few free laugh out loud moments.  And to me, those are rare!  I've posted a video clip above of Buddy's trip to the mall;  the escalator scene is especially near and dear to my heart because I experienced the tramautic ride in Dilliards at Broadway Square Mall in Tyler almost 30 years ago.  I don't remember much about the episode except my mother's face--filled with horrr and embarassment.  How she managed to free me from the grips of that moving staircase will always be a mystery, but I'm sure of one thing:  my flexibility and perfect high kicks (a la Southern Belle) are mainly attributed to early splits training. 

How true this image applies to our lives:  We want to flee from our present situation, but getting out seems impossible....even when an exit strategy is mapped out for us.  We make excuses because we don't like change.  It's not the airplane ride we're scared of, it's not knowing what to expect once we land.  I mean logically, we all know the odds of dying in a car crash on our daily commute is much more likely to happen, right?  But, it's routine....we know what to expect once we get to the office, school, or wherever you're going that you've been time and time again.  Think back to that first day of work, or even further (strain really hard) to the first day of kindergarten.  That's got to be the most horrible day for children and parents alike.  If you were observing this event for the first time, you would swear the kids were going off to Auswich concentration camp and sweet little Miss Jones was really Hitler.  But that's our fear at an all time hyper pitch. 

Fear can be debilitating to the point of paralysis even if it means staying in a bad position.  John 5 narrates a historical recount of Jesus healing the sick one Sunday (regarded as the Sabbath in Jerusalem). 

"...Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.s5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"



7 "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me."


8 Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"


9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!....

I love how Jesus asks the question, "would you like to get well?", to emphasize it's OUR choice.  We can take it or leave it.  Astonishing is the answer of the sick man, "I can't, sir".  As if his handicaps were too large for Jesus to heal.  This is glaringly true in my own life everyday.  I can't count the times I've not accepted Christ's eager attempts to deliver me.  I even know what's on the other side of the escalator, and I'm still wired to stay put because I think (scratch that, Satan thinks) I get caught up in doubting myself.  It's easier to stay wounded and use it as a crutch vs. accepting grace and living with purpose.  Why?  Because Satan tells us so.

Next time God asks you a rhetorical question like, "you want me to help you Whit?"....don't say "no thanks, I'm ok".....say, "yes sir, I'm yours....take me to the top!"