lent: the comfort tension

[Un]comfort[able].  adj.

The word means : causing discomfort.  Like: that’s the most uncomfortable couch.

But recently I’ve been thinking about how the word may also be a description of me, of us, of our culture…that many of us are – to some degree – uncomfortable.  Like: I am un able to be comforted. 

And of course the great irony here is that most of us live in such comfort.

                         

I was away, praying, thinking, reflecting on my deep need to be comforted by God. 

                        (I am not alone in this need –

                                    many of us are carrying sorrow,

                                    some of us physical pain,

                                    a sense of dread about the future, etc.) 

Many of us are aware of our need for God’s comfort. 

So as I was praying about this: my need for comfort from God, I was simultaneously aware of the fact that I have nearly every earthly comfort available to me at any time:

                        if I’m hungry there’s usually something to eat,

                        if I’m cold, there’s wood for the fire or a sweatshirt,

                        if I’m lonely, I have people to talk to,

                        if I’m feeling useless, I have ways to feel useful…

And I became aware of this tension- like a tight wire between two poles:

            I need God’s comfort, and I’m so easily comforted. 

            I’m so easily comforted, but I still need God’s comfort. 

And then this thought landed in my mind like a bird on the wire:

            Are your comforts keeping you from being comforted?

Are the very things which promise to ease your pain – and, to some degree, do – keeping you from receiving truer, deeper, comfort from God’s Spirit, whom Jesus calls “The Comforter”?

I'm fascinated by these words from the prophet Zechariah (chapter 10): 

1 Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime;

it is the LORD who sends the thunder-storms.

He gives showers of rain to all people,

and plants of the field to everyone.

2 The idols speak deceit, 
      

diviners see visions that lie; 
      

they tell dreams that are false, 
      

they give comfort in vain. 
      

Therefore the people wander like sheep

oppressed for lack of a shepherd.