okay with the uncomfortable.

My mind has been wandering a lot lately about my tendency to drift towards people that are “easy” for me to be around. We have bought into this lie that says, “Be around people just like you,” or, “You will only learn from people your age,” or even worse, “You can only learn from people you can stand.” Ouch.

Even though moving states isn’t that big of a deal for some people, it was for me. It changed me in a way that I didn’t expect, and the entire time I fought this battle of wanting to stay the same but not entirely sure how to do so when so many of my circumstances (and many of the people in my life) were undeniably different.

And in some form, all of us are in a place that does not look anything like we thought it would. If we’re not, I’d wonder if we were really living. And I have this scary tendency to run towards the familiar when I am in an uncomfortable place–whether it be with a person or a circumstance, I run to the familiar because I so often fall back on safety.

Beth Moore said something recently that spoke to me in a way that goes beyond what I can express, so rather than try to repackage what she said, I’ll just give you the Beth Moore version verbatim… because really, nobody says Beth Moore like Beth Moore.

“He is constantly adjusting us so that he can bring us into the thought-process of what he’s called us to do. Just because you are in a situation and think, ‘I don’t fit here,’ doesn’t mean you’re not supposed to be there. You probably are supposed to be there. Your biggest adjustments will not be to circumstances, but to people.

You’re going to find that you are in constant flux, constant change. God will put you in situations… but what we want to do is go into a new situation and still be the same old person. You’re in a new situation so that YOU CAN BECOME NEW in your person and in your character. Until we die we are going to keep changing if we’re in the will of God. His whole point is conforming us into the image of Christ. Unless you look just like Him today, and love like Him, and act like Him, you are not finished.”

I was challenged today by that very thought. As I have tried to adjust to this pattern on a weekly basis of preparing to teach–I have also had to emotionally evaluate my own life to make sure that I’m even speaking truth. And in that, I pray and hope I am evolving/changing more and more each day. Although it may cause friction in my life, if it makes me even a hint more like Jesus, it’s worth it.