It's been rolling around in my head, this desire to choose 'character over comfort'. But knowing is never the same as doing, and I've gotten a lot of practice at one over the other (hmmm...which do you think?) Just yesterday, I sat with a lovely woman, sharing stories and tears and the Word of God. We both confessed we weren't crazy about the idea of suffering. But really, who is? Good question. God is. And as I sit here, it all comes into focus, the answer, this beautiful reason to say yes to God at every turn. God- He was crazy enough for you that He chose to suffer. To choose character over comfort. To look into your soul before you were you, and know that you would need Him to be crazy in love with you. I feel the pulse of that love flowing through me as I write. This desire to know the sufferings of Christ and be united with Him in that choosing....that wanting....that living through dying.
I find that there are a million-and-one reasons to choose comfort over character. It's so natural isn't it? Too natural. Human-nature natural. Therein lies the essence of the battle we face. It's not so much that we need to try harder or work smarter or pray longer. The real battle is looking to Christ, really fixing our eyes on Him and His perfection. What a comfort, true comfort. It's not the type of immediate-gratification comfort that comes, sadly, when we choose our own desires over His, over others'. Over what's really even best for our own souls. We're deceived. I'm deceived if I believe that thing I want so badly, whatever it might be in the moment, is worth more than the eternal joy of obedience, of choosing to walk right into the fire of trial and pain and every hard decision you've ever tried to avoid.
I'm cheering for you, sister or brother! Keep fighting the good fight. And may His perfect, sacrificing, crazy-for-you character bring you the comfort you need to choose holiness every time.
Ruth