God does not want you comfortable. He doesn’t enjoy your pain, but becoming satisfied with the way things are is quite dangerous. This is not as good as it gets! There are many ways in which God uses divine discontent to drive you to your purpose.
The trap of people-pleasing is an easy one to fall into. I’m sure personality has something to do with it. So do early childhood experiences, the “lessons” you unconsciously learned before you knew you were learning them. Healthy relationships require that you care about others. But if you want to live Fully Alive, or accomplish anything of value for God or others, you will have to become a recovering people-pleaser.
Death is not the end. That’s the message of the gospel, the good news. The paradigm of death followed by resurrection was true of Jesus’ life on earth. And it’s true for our experience as well – both in the here-and-now, and in the eternal sense. Even while we are still on earth, we can experience the life of Jesus.
When the enemy can’t get you to fall into the ditch on one side, he’ll work hard to hurdle you into the ditch on the other. If he can’t make you overwhelmed with rage, he’ll be satisfied with weakness or cowardice. Corrupting truth into either self-righteousness or tolerance will do just fine. And he’s used the same pathway to bring confusion about the difference between lust and healthy desire.
The kingdom of God turns many of our human assumptions upside down. The way to power is through service. The weak are really the strong. Those who seem foolish are really the wise ones. The poor are really rich. What seems like the end is really the beginning. The only way to find life is through dying to yourself.
