Comfort
As I write this, it’s the second week in November, but it’s a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. I’m sitting outside, in a T-shirt and shorts, with a can of Dr. Pepper in the cup holder of my chair. I’m about as comfortable as I can be.
I like to be comfortable. Who doesn’t? We like our conveniences…the things that make life easier for us. We like our chairs with as much cushion as we can get on them…we like them to recline or rock…we like to have the remote right next to us so we don’t have to reach or get up. We like to be able to have something to drink and a snack next to us. We want our music and our TV shows and our phones at our fingertips. We want our GPS so we don’t have to think about where we’re going or how we’re going to get there. We like our air conditioning, our heat, our fans, or warm showers. We want our food hot and our drinks cold…and we want it all NOW! Face it…we’re all spoiled by our comfort.
The word comfort has many meanings. There’s the one we most think of, and the one I’ve been writing about above. I’m no Webster, but in that sense comfort means having everything to our liking. It applies to our home life or at work or in social settings…even in our churches. We like this kind of comfort.
There’s another meaning that’s a little different. Again, I’m not in the business of writing dictionaries, but this other meaning of comfort is the encouragement and peace that stem from a sense of stability, especially in God…especially when the world is otherwise crashing down all around us.
Today’s reading in the Eastridge Reading Plan was 2 Corinthians 1. As I read the first few verses, I was struck by a familiar word popping up again and again:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NIV, emphasis mine)
Did you catch that? Did you figure out the meaning of comfort here? When Paul talks about “the God of all comfort,” he’s not saying that God wants us to have it all and have it conveniently. God isn’t a vending machine that makes it all simple or a remote that dials up what we’re looking for. Quite the contrary! Check out Jesus’ own words:
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 (NIV)
“…you will have trouble.” Gulp. You mean it’s not supposed to be easy? I’m not supposed to get it all and have it now? You mean I may be uncomfortable? If I believed that I was entitled to have any of the things I asked about in the above questions, I’d be in some sad shape.
But Jesus said some encouraging things here…some (aha!) comforting things. “…in me you may have peace.” (What we really need…when we really need it.) “…take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Wow. Thank You, Jesus!)
That’s what being “the God of all comfort” means to us. That’s the kind of comfort we should be looking for if we are in Christ. We should bank on the fact that our God is in control…that He’s got our back…that He knows the outcome…even when we’re in the midst of the proverbial hurricane or earthquake. That’s real comfort. And it’s something we can count on to the very end.
It kinda makes a near-perfect fall day seem insignificant…
Photo by Anthony Tori on Unsplash