Are you comfortable in your uncomfortable place?

Blind Bartimeaus was ready for change! He knew he needed healing and understood it couldn’t come without something changing. This meant leaving his comfort zone and his ‘normal’ life as a blind beggar.

It’s amazing how many people say they want healing but are resistant to change. They are holding on to being ‘comfortable’ even in their uncomfortable, unhealed place. Bartimeaus wasn’t like this, he was ready to take a risk. The story tells us that Bartimeaus threw aside his garment and started out, presumably groping his way forward, toward Jesus.

That garment represented his old life with its old schedules and daily routines. How vulnerable he must have felt as he moved toward Jesus. His old life and identity were now left behind. There was no cloak to hide behind and no more membership of the beggar community. He was in a new and uncomfortable place, alone, still in the dark, but he was determined to go forward, whatever it took, in order to be healed.

Recently, whilst suffering from sciatica, I was bed-bound for a week and in a great deal of pain, with my leg in spasm. I learned an amazing lesson about how easy it is to stay in one position even if it isn’t very comfortable. The reason is that it might be more painful to try to move, even if that move could possibly result in an improved situation. Sometimes it seems easier to stay in the uncomfortable place rather than risk more discomfort getting to a better place. ‘Better the devil you know’ is the way people sometimes put it, but this attitude wasn’t one that Bartimeaus subscribed to.

It was before Jesus spoke personally to him and healed him, that he threw off the old lifestyle. His choice didn’t bring instant comfort. Initially he must have felt very vulnerable, but he was ready for change. He wanted to be healed so he could fulfil a ‘yet to be discovered’ destiny as a useful part of society. He was willing to go for it. Are you?

Prayer: Jesus, forgive us when we allow ourselves to become comfortable in an uncomfortable place and are unwilling to take the risk to change. Help us to take courage and, like Bartimeaus, walk forward into the fullness of life You can give us. Amen.