Get Out of the Middle of Comfortable

Think about your greatest achievements.

Are those victorious memories marked by comfort?

Probably not.

Our most significant success stories are usually characterized by a breakthrough of our comfort zone and a reliance on the Holy Spirit. But when was the last time you experienced such a story?

In this week’s Catalyst Insider, Bob Goff takes 3 minutes to challenge you to get out of the middle of comfortable and to step onto the edge of yikes with Jesus.

Prefer to read rather than watch? Here’s the transcript of Bob’s talk:

Four days ago I was in Somalia. We went to Mogadishu and I'm like rounding up ... I knew a total of zero people in Mogadishu. We started this country torn by civil war. There is no government. There is no police. There's nothing, just a big civil war with 10,000,000 mad people and everybody's got guns. We get to the airport and you hire these guys with machine guns to protect you. There's six of them in this truck in front of you and you're the guy in a van with the tinted windows behind them. Who does everybody aim for? I want to be in the Prius behind the guy in the tinted windows, right?

So we're driving through these roads, and it feel like a level of Call of Duty. It's just like ... and somebody cuts in between us and the guys with the machine guns and that's how people go missing, right? So the guys with the machine guns start shooting and I'm like, "Yikes." That's the only word I could comes up with. The guy that was driving says, "This is really bad." There's two things you don't want to hear in Somalia, this is really bad or I'm the captain now, right?

I'm like, "Yikes." But you know what you guys, isn't that where we want to live when you're following Jesus? Right on the edge of yikes. Cause guys like me ... He talks about me in scripture. He talks about guys like me, maybe some of you that are comfortable. And that's the deal. I've got a beautiful wife and a pickup truck and a house and I'm living right in the middle of comfortable and he says, "Bob, live right on the edge of yikes. Cause you know what? Then you'll actually need me." Guys and gals that aren't comfortable, they actually need the Holy Spirit, right? The Comforter. That's so over my pay grade, but our job, get out on the edge of yikes.

You know what? If we're not on the edge of yikes, find someone who is and get out on the ledge with them. Go like, "Double yikes." Go like, "What do you do?" And I got, "I don't know." Smallest piece on the chess board, one step closer to Jesus.