Use Your Comfort Zone to the Glory of God

“Get out of your comfort zone.” We hear it all the time, from friends, family, business leaders, church leaders, and actually, the whole rest of the world, it seems. But I’m going to encourage you here to do just the opposite: to find your comfort zone and stay in it.

Not all the time, of course. Sometimes, in order to grow and really see what you’re capable of, you do need to get out of your comfort zone. You sometimes need to try new things and stretch yourself, even if it’s difficult or feels awkward at first.

But there are reasons why you have a “sweet spot” of abilities or endeavors where you feel competent, confident, and thoroughly content with whatever it is that you’re doing. You’re comfortable there, and you’re in the zone. It’s your comfort zone.

Your comfort zone might be:

teaching • serving • administrating • nurturing • problem solving • cooking • communicating • fixing • cleaning • performing • creating • building • playing a sport • designing • managing • encouraging • praying • planning • leading • analyzing • restoring • giving

… or more—the list is as long as there are different types of people.

Now ask yourself, why are you comfortable there? It’s likely because you’re good at something. You have an interest in it, people ask you to do it or tell you you’re good at it, you’ve learned a lot about it, and/or you have a lot of experience with it. It brings you happiness or even joy. (Look back at that list above. Not all of those things are obvious “gifts,” are they? And yet, they are indeed gifts that some people have to a greater degree than others.)

In your comfort zone, you’re often using a gift that God has given you, and it feels right to do so. You may be doing this in big, public ways (with an audience, or in a large organization where many can see), smaller ways (just for your family, by yourself, or other little-seen ways), or with those who can’t reciprocate (the young or old, the sick or dying, those in faraway places, or unknown recipients). You may be a big fish in a small pond or a seemingly insignificant fish in an ocean-sized pond.

Do you already know where your gifts and abilities lie? Take a look at the list above, and ask yourself these questions to narrow things down: What do people tell you you’re good at? What do people ask you to do or compliment you on? Where do you find yourself feeling content, at ease, and confident in your abilities? When and where do you find joy in what you’re doing, or a sense of “this is what God wants me to be doing”?

In your comfort zone, you are exercising your gifts, and “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17a). Thank you, Lord, for making us all different, with different abilities, talents, inclinations, and interests.

God has given you this gift; what you do with it is up to you.

Sometimes we’re disappointed in our gift, and we want a different one. Sometimes we’re envious of the magnitude of someone else’s gift, feeling that ours comes up short. Sometimes we’re tempted to not use our gift, and we hide it or keep it from others. Sometimes we don’t even recognize our gift as a gift at all. None of these responses acknowledge the Giver of the gift; none of these responses glorifies God.

In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus talks about a man who, before leaving town, gave his servants each a significant amount of money, entrusting them with different amounts according to their abilities. (A talent was a very large sum; our English word “talent,” meaning a special ability, derives from this parable.) The servants who invested their talents with others, doubling their master’s investment, were praised upon the master’s return. When they returned the money to him greatly increased, he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” The third servant, though, was afraid, and dug a hole and buried his master’s money. When the master returned, this servant handed to him exactly the same amount he had been given—unchanged, not increased, not used for the benefit of another—because he had hidden it away. The master was greatly displeased that his gift to this servant, even though it had been the least of the three gifts, had been wasted in his absence.

What gift(s), large or small, has God given to you? If you struggle to identify them, look for them in your comfort zone or sweet spot, as defined above. What are you doing, or have you done, with those gifts (the “talents”) that God has given? Have you hidden them, perhaps out of fear, or forgotten about them? Have you told yourself that they are insignificant and not of benefit to others or of use in the kingdom of God? Do you see how this attitude could be questioning God’s goodness toward you and his definition of what a good gift really is?

Recently I read in my daily devotional (Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest) about how and why God gives us difficult things to do. I especially appreciated this sentence: “Do we appreciate the miraculous salvation of Jesus Christ enough to be our utmost for His highest—our best for His glory?”

Do I appreciate what Christ has done for me enough to give my best for his glory?

The master in the Parable of the Talents gave his servants each an enormous sum. We are meant to understand that as a debt that can’t possibly be repaid … and yet can and should be used, here on earth, here in the time we’ve been given, to the glory of God. In your home, in your workplace, in your church, in your neighborhood, in your school, in the wider world … in whatever sphere you find yourself. It will of course look different for each of us (that’s part of God’s plan), and it may even look different in different seasons of your life.

But don’t squander it. Don’t bury it out of fear. Find your comfort zone, your sweet spot, where you feel confident and joyful with the gift(s) that God has given to you, and use it for his glory.

Photo by sebastiaan stam on Unsplash