Leaving Lives of Comfort

After four years at my high school, it’s beginning to feel like a prison. My fellow seniors are getting in trouble and earning Saturday detentions for the stupidest things, because the faculty couldn't be more  anxious to get rid of us. The one thing people talk about is college. Everyone’s catching senioritis and the teachers are raging mad about it. But perhaps the worst thing, is the recent constant feeling of alienation I’m feeling. As I walk down the halls, I’m surrounded by messages and statements I don’t believe in nor want to believe in. I feel like messages that Jesus would not agree with are being shoved down my throat. As a perhaps outspoken and overly opinionated person, this year has brought me a fresh understanding of what following Jesus sometimes looks like. It means isolation. It means feeling like you’re alone sometimes. It means feeling like you’re the only one standing. That’s happened this week. Multiple times. I wouldn’t be lying if I told you that this week, I walked out of a class in tears and spent some time crying on the bathroom floor, after the results of a classroom survey were posted in front of the class. The glares and dirty looks I got. The “jerk” whispered into my ears by the people behind me. The spiritual warfare I felt going on in that room. The heartbreak I felt as people publicly confessed things that tore me apart inside: it all wore down my soul too much and I couldn’t contain it. 

Living the life Jesus calls us to live is not easy. There’s no comfortable way to put it. The life Jesus calls us to live is the opposite way of the world. Our lives should be radically different. We should feel alienated sometimes. Isolated at times. Feeling like we’re the only ones. Because the way Jesus lived was radically contra-the-way-the-world-lived. If God didn't put us in uncomfortable situations from time to time, why would He promise to be our Comforter? How could we even feel the Comforter if we never needed Him?

Fortunately, we are not alone. He has also blessed me richly in this season with soul sisters to fight this fight and walk this walk with. I pray my friends, that He has blessed you with these kind of sisters and brothers too. <3 And not only do we have these sweet people, but we have Jesus. Although we may feel like we are the only ones, Jesus is always there. The God of Angel Armies is always by our side. In Him we have everything we need. 

Isaiah 41:13

“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you”