Being a disciple isn’t supposed to be comfy

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, tacos, a good book, a warm blanket, a nice pillow.

Many things seem to spell comfort, and it’s easy to get used to being comfortable. Life seems better when all is well and contentment has set in. Comfort is like a friend you’ve known forever, a dog that greets you at the door every time you come home or your favorite coffee mug or baseball cap.

It’s easy to sink into a routine of normalcy, to fall back on the comfort of those things that feel like home. To stay in your little well -- trod rut from work, to school, to church, to home. Surrounded by the familiar, you can sometimes forget what it’s like to be a disciple of Christ. The familiar can turn comfort into complacency. And that, in your spiritual walk with Jesus Christ, can spell trouble. Your spiritual routine can easily get too comfortable. Praying the same way every day. Sitting in the same pew at church. Singing the same songs. Talking to the same people in the same row behind you every week. Asking the Lord for help with the same dilemmas every morning and thanking Him for the same things every night.

Although there are many good things about having a schedule for Bible study and prayer, being comfortable is not part of being a disciple of Christ. Complacency often goes along with forgetting to tell others what the Lord has done for you. It can cause you to be silent instead of sharing the good news about Jesus with others. Routine can make you forget to take things to the Lord in prayer and can instead cause you to worry.

In Luke 9:23, Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” The “daily” is the routine, but you might think of discipleship in this way: If you actually carry a cross with you each day, it will be dragging through mud after a rain. It will be the first thing you see when you look behind you. It will be pulling back as you walk uphill. The cross will feel far heavier on days the summer sun beats down. Each day, as you pick up your cross, you will be uncertain about what lies ahead, but you should be ready to follow Jesus as His disciple. Jesus never said that following Him was a comfortable pastime. In fact, He said discipleship was hard.

So don’t get comfy. Get up, grab your cross and follow Christ. Then you’ll be a disciple, doing what really matters.