Not so long ago I learned I’m a creature of comfort.

It’s not how I described myself then, but now I know myself a bit better. The hours that passed as our home burned were full of adrenaline, screaming sirens, and flashing lights. It still overwhelms me to think of the twenty plus years we spent building life and family inside those walls. How it only took a few hours to become a pile of smoldering rubble.

The months that followed are still quite blurry, but there is one thing I don’t think I’ll forget. Everything, and I mean every. single. thing. was uncomfortable. The clothes so lovingly given to me itched. I tossed and turned in the bed where we slept. My core temperature ran hot even on the coolest nights. I was a wreck, and no matter where I went or what I did there was this gnawing discomfort I couldn’t escape.

Merriam-Webster’s defines comfort as solace. Relief from grief or trouble. In the early days of loss it seemed there was no relief to be found and I became keenly aware of just how much comfort I desired. The hardest part to face was where and who I went to for relief.

Famine was the discomfort that drove Naomi’s husband to leave their home and settle in a foreign land. She found herself surrounded by a new way of living, within a new culture and place. Nothing familiar or routine. No place to go to worship with family and friends. I can imagine it was a comfort trade-off. Leaving home to ease the discomfort of physical hunger to a place where all the new had its own uncomfortableness about it.

Just yesterday our pastor asked, “Do you find it ironic Adam and Eve attempted to hide the discomfort of their nakedness with itchy, uncomfortable fig leaves?” It’s more than ironic, it’s a picture of our broken condition. Attempting to run or hide from the uncomfortable in things that only bring more discomfort.

Jesus knew discomfort, and understands our bent to go looking for comfort in all the wrong places. He knew we would need Someone to help, counsel, strengthen and perhaps most importantly… comfort.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.

John 14:16-17 AMP

My experience with discomfort continues its work in me. I won’t pretend to have it all figured out. These days I simply ask Spirit to help me notice when I am attempting to relieve my discomfort with things that won’t last.

It’s sort of an attempt to be okay with it all. Okay to be uncomfortable. Okay to feel like I’m wandering in a foreign land. Okay to feel lonely because there are strangers all around.

It’s okay.
Really.
It is.

It’s okay to embrace discomfort and see it as God’s whisper that true comfort is only found in his Presence.

I invite you to do the same. Notice when you are uncomfortable and ask God to reveal the places you go to get comfortable. Consider where you usually end up, and turn…

turn and discover the One whose name is Comfort.