Necessary Discomfort

There is much about this thing we call faith or God or church or community that is about comfort.  About helping us to move…
From those places in our lives which feel broken towards a sense of wholeness;
From the a sense of guilt towards forgiveness;
From sorrow and sadness towards wisdom and understanding.
From loneliness and aloneness and self-centeredness to community and connection and generosity.
And, all of that is good.
And as it should be. 

But there is also something about this thing we call faith or God or church or community that is about discomfort.  About being vulnerable enough and daring enough to take off our blinders and to see our lives and the world as they really are and then courageous enough to imagine how it could be or should be or how God intends it to be.  To be vulnerable enough and daring enough to step…
Beyond what is comfortable;
Beyond what is safe;
Beyond what is practical;
And to do our best to do something to make both life and world more as God intends.
To recognize the other met unexpectedly along the road…
Whoever and wherever and however that happens for us…
And to extend mercy and to practice compassion.

 Bonnie Gordon tells this story.
(As with all good stories, I may not have all the facts exactly as they were, but in telling it again the story nevertheless continues to be true.) 
At the end of a week of building homes in Nicaragua when individuals and groups are asked to reflect on their experience, a man held up a pebble and talked about how, after sifting sand for the mortar and walking along roads that are always dusty and mixing incredible amounts of cement, he would get pebbles in his shoe and how annoying and frustrating and uncomfortable that was. But, now, as he was about to go home…
Back to where it was clean and comfortable and safe…
Back to where there was no lack of running water…
And even hot running water…
And food…more than enough…
He was beginning to understand.
And because of that he was going to take his pebble home with him…
And, on occasion, to put it in his shoe…
So, he would remember. 

There is something, is there not…
About this thing we call faith or God or community or church…
That is about discomfort.
About seeing the lives of others as they really are;
And seeing the world as it really is for far too many of our sisters and brothers;
And realizing God intends something more.
Something better.
And that we have some part to play.
And so I wonder…
To help you remember, what pebble do you put in your shoe?