Laying Aside Comfort

The other week at youth group, my youth pastor spoke on how comfortable we are in this life as Americans and how we must lay aside our comforts to truly find joy in Jesus Christ. He talked about all the unreached people groups and the persecuted Christians, who are quite literally laying aside their comfort of safety to believe in Jesus Christ. At the end of his message, he gave us a couple challenges: Pray for the persecuted Christians, have a rice meal, and make your smartphone a dumb phone for a week. Now, the first two challenges are fairly simple and easy to do; however, making your smartphone a dumbphone can be a bit harder. This simply means only using your phone for messaging and school work.

Of course, throughout the whole message, all I could think about was that in only a couple months, I would be doing exactly what he was talking about. I am going to be getting rid of all of my comforts to seek out the unreached people and share the Good News. I would soon be doing exactly what he said we needed to do as Christians.

So I decided to accept the challenge and make my smartphone a dumbphone for a week. I’ve done it before for longer, so I didn’t think it would be that difficult. However, this time was much different than the other times I have done this challenge. Many times I wanted to open up social media just to fill the time between classes or because I was bored. Fortunately, I was able to resist, but it was still annoying. Many times I debated ending the challenge early, trying to figure out the true reason I was doing it: Was I truly doing it to grow in my relationship with Christ and give up my phone for a week for Him, or was I doing it simply to say that I completed the challenge? Everyday I thought “Oh I’ll just use my phone tomorrow. I am just trying to complete a challenge.” But each day I successfully kept my smartphone a dumbphone. 

Throughout the week, I truly believed that nothing was really happening, that I wasn’t growing in my faith or relationship with Christ. But after some time of reflection, I can see that was not the case. Only using my phone for messaging and school work actually freed up a lot of my time, and I used that time to build by faith. Whether it was listening to worship music, reading my bible, or reading a Christian book, I used all the time I wasn’t spending on my phone to dwell in the presence of God. I didn’t even realize that it was happening. I didn’t have to force myself to do any of these things. I genuinely wanted to be in the presence of God.

This just goes to show how much God really works in our lives and how much we can get distracted. There are so many distractions in our world today. We have school, work, sports, friends, and many more, but when we get rid of all of those distractions, we can truly start to see God move. When we get rid of our comforts, such as our phones, we open our eyes to the beauty of our Heavenly Father.

My youth pastor’s message on laying aside comfort really resonated with me. It encouraged me and made me even more excited for what’s to come in the fall. I have the amazing opportunity to get rid of so many distractions and comforts and all for the Glory of God. And I get to do this with a community of like-minded Christians. I honestly cannot wait to live without my bed, to not have the convenience of a washer and dryer and having to hand wash my clothes, to have to take bucket showers, and so much more. These are all things that we so often take for granted, and I cannot wait to be able to put those aside and simply live for the glory of God’s Kingdom.

Love and blessings, 

Ali Goolsby