Beyond Your Comfort Zone

This past weekend I stopped by my parents’ house to take my boys for a swim.  When I pulled into the driveway I noticed a strange contraption set up in the garage.  It was essentially a long narrow table made up of some boards stretched across two sawhorse stands a couple feet off the ground.  I thought this was a bit strange because my dad is not the kind of guy to tinker in the garage.  So I asked him about it and was not anticipating his response.  He told me he was using it as a training table for the dog.  To be honest, I thought he was taking crazy pills.  How silly to train a dog on a table!  But then he told me the back-story. 

Apparently a guy who had a bad back was trying to train his dog.  It was proving to be quite the challenge because he had to constantly bend over to pick up objects or bend down to give his dog affirmation and praise.  His back was getting worse and worse.  After several of weeks of enduring pain he decided to build a table so that he could train his dog at eye level.  If he could put his dog on a table he wouldn’t have to bend over and continually put strain on his back.  The results were simply incredible.  Two things happened.  The first was that his back wasn’t hurting anymore.  The second was this: things he was trying to teach his dog to do for weeks were now taking just a few minutes.  What he discovered was a link between comfort zone and focus.  When dogs are placed a couple feet off the ground on a narrow table they are outside of their comfort zone.  And because they are outside their comfort zone they are more focused on what the trainer is trying to accomplish.  Again, things that typically took weeks to learn due to distractions or a lack of cooperation took a matter of minutes because the dog’s comfort zone was being stretched.  The result was a heightened focus.  In the end, what was done to decrease back pain proved revolutionary when it came to dog training.   

Maybe I am the one taking crazy pills here.  Wouldn’t be the first time.  But as my dad told me this story I started to connect the dots in my own life.  I quickly realized that this same pattern is true in my life.  When I am outside of my comfort zone – when I am being stretched – when things are painful – when things are not going according to plan – I tend to get hyper focused on God.  Moreover, while I am always trying to lean into practices that help me grow and deepen my relationship with God, the moments in my life where I’ve been pushed outside of my comfort zone have brought about the fastest and deepest change. 

The rub, obviously, is that most people don’t like to be pushed outside their comfort zone.  Most people don’t like to be stretched or experience pain.  Most people prefer for things to go according to plan.  As such, we often resist the very thing that would help us grow.  We settle into a distracted and uncooperative lifestyle.  If you look at the Bible – even just a surface reading – you will discover that the people God used were stretched way beyond themselves.  Abram was asked to leave home to go to a land he had never seen before.  Moses was tasked with leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.  Joshua was given the responsibility of leading God’s people into the Promised Land.  Ruth, Esther, Samuel, David, Daniel, Nehemiah.  All of them were pushed outside of their comfort zone and experienced great growth as a result.

God wants to grow you.  And God wants to use you to accomplish great things.  Often times that will involve a training table—something that gets you out of your comfort zone and heightens your focus on him.  I’d encourage you not to resist in those moments, but rather, to embrace them—knowing that the result will be personal growth, deeper intimacy with Jesus, and a greater impact for the kingdom of God.