Cows and Waterbeds

With the royal wedding last Saturday, the world's focus is on England's monarchy. So here's a "royal tidbit". According to May 23 Metro News, the Queen is a great animal lover.  So much so, her milk cows at Windsor Castle actually sleep on water beds. Wow! In our world overflowing with intense need, doesn't that seems like a shocking display of opulence? But digging deeper, we discover it's not about pampering bovines. This is an effective means of increasing milk production. It's even becoming popular with American dairy farms. Still, the image of dairy cows lounging on waterbeds... well, it's a bit bizarre. 

This speaks to a basic struggle in our fallen nature: our desire for comfort. Pursuing comfort is our automatic default, and I confess that I fight it every day. It's perhaps our greatest idol; feeling entitled to what we want, when we want it. Well, here's a crazy idea. How about embracing discomfort! After all, comfort is the enemy of growth. In fact, it's pretty much impossible to grow while you're comfortable. When life's good, we settle in, not wanting to change a thing. That's why Jesus warned the church in Sardis to "Wake up” (Rev.3:2) and told the Laodiceans, as they were being lulled into complacency, that they were "lukewarm". (Rev.3:16). In contrast, God tells us to "rejoice in our hardships" (Romans 5:3).  Embrace discomfort!

The best strategy for embracing discomfort is a simple practice called "serving" -- focusing on the needs of others. That forces you out of your comfort zone faster than a penguin on a water slide.  Simply open your eyes to the intense needs around us. For instance, I just read a post from T.D. Jakes about a million Africans who've been abducted and sold into slavery in Libya. Personally, it's uncomfortable to think about, and even more uncomfortable to do something. The comfortable part of me wants to say, "That's too bad", and skip off on my merry way. But by embracing the discomfort of serving others, we experience amazing rewards! You'll be blessed by grasping discomfort far more than pursuing comfort... even the comfort of lounging around like a cow on a waterbed!