Comfortable

I sometimes walk into the gym and look at the board. Most of the time, looking at the board makes me feel tired. I can tell just by looking at the planned workout that it's going to hurt. I can even tell sometimes that I won't be able to finish. Maybe I should just go home.

When you look at the tasks in front of you, can you tell right from the beginning that you won't succeed, and that even if you try, trying is going to hurt? Wouldn't you rather skip the pain altogether, stay home, stay comfortable, because you know you won't succeed anyway?

It's easy to make a choice between two actions when the outcome of your success is guaranteed. When you know you'll experience pain but it'll be worth it because you'll get to the top of the mountain and see the view, you push through it. When you know that doing nothing will give you nothing, you might decide to do something.

The hard choice comes when putting in all your effort will be uncomfortable, but you still won't quite be able to succeed on your own. You climb all day but the top of the mountain is beyond your capability to reach. Do you do it anyway?

People will sometimes ask me, why choose to believe in something so hard to believe in? Why follow a path that demands so much from you?

The answer is perfection. You can't get there by being comfortable. You get there by trying your hardest, knowing that you will fail, so you turn to Christ. You carry the load God asks you to carry, and when it is too heavy, you fall on your knees and he takes the burden. You ask for His perfection to bridge the gap between what you can do and what you can't do.

It's hard to choose to be uncomfortable. It's hard to commit to a life that demands constant change, constant improvement, constant reshaping of your will.

My experiences with lifting weights and getting stronger are similar to my experiences with my faith. I guess I don't want to be comfortable, because I won't ever quit. I'll keep choosing to take the road less traveled, to climb the mountain, to do the burpees, to love my enemy, to change my heart. Hopefully, by the grace of God, I'll see the view as He turns my weaknesses into strengths.

Mussels from our trip to Oregon. Because muscles, mussels... strength, you know. 

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27