Coping with the stress when you’re outside your comfort zone

By Dean Collins

The end is a long way from the beginning.

A couple of times I’ve thought I might have made it to the ends of the earth. I suspect some of you have thought the same, and yet we were in different geographic locations. My experiences were on mission trips, the first of them in India. I can’t recall the region and I certainly could never find it again. My friend Jim and I were to preach at an evening rally. We drove for what seemed like hours over many bumpy and twisting miles of uneven roads. As we traveled, we saw fewer and fewer people and experienced growing quiet, which was a refreshing change from the noise of the crowded cities we had visited. When we arrived, we looked around and thought, Why here? We saw only a few people. But in the darkness, after word got out that we had come, hundreds arrived from the local villages.

It can be a little frightening to realize God has stretched you beyond your imagination and your comfort zone. In such moments we discover whether we are relying on our selves and our strategies, or depending on the Holy Spirit who lives in us and guides us. When God leads us to the end of self we might just be close to the ends of the earth.

I suspect the apostles were not sure what Jesus meant when he told them they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Yet every one of them experienced the special moment when they knew they were fulfilling these words.

Chaos . . . and progress

The inflection point of Acts seems to be the stoning of Stephen. It is clear that God redeems every situation, even when at the moment it appears the worst has happened. The church scattered quickly away from Jerusalem. The apostles stayed put. In the chaos, surely some felt uncertainty about their decision to follow Jesus. However when the Holy Spirit leads us, there will always be forward progress in the kingdom of God. Chapters 8,9, and 10 are filled with dramatic conversions. Saul sees the blinding light on the road to Damascus, even as his motives were set on destroying these people of the Way whose direction he believed was surely the wrong way.

Next we see God’s Spirit direct Cornelius to Peter while Peter experienced a reset on his understanding of the gospel’s inclusive nature. And the scattered believers went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and even far north to Antioch. I’m sure some thought they were reaching the ends of the earth in Antioch, the third-largest Roman city, filled with diversity of people and beliefs. These early disciples didn’t hold back. They leaned in and on Jesus and shared their testimony of the grace and power of the cross. And many came to Christ. Persecution may have scattered them, but the love of Christ compelled them.

Critical component

Antioch may have felt like the end of the earth, but it would become the great launching place of Paul’s missionary endeavors. While Paul usually gets most of the credit for the expansive outreach of the gospel, it appears a kind and encouraging man named Barnabas was critical both to Paul’s growth and acceptance as an apostle and missionary.

It was Barnabas the apostles sent to check out the expansion of the church in Antioch. After seeing what God was doing there, it was Barnabas who went to Tarsus and brought Saul back to teach and preach for a year in this rapidly growing outpost of the gospel. Barnabas was both an encourager and a bridge builder to Paul, and a peacemaker in the early church. It was Paul and Barnabas the church would send out to extend the gospel further and further away from and beyond Jerusalem.

Whenever we are ready to meet God with open hands and hearts he is ready to lead us beyond our comfort zones. He wants to continue his Kingdom expansion through anyone ready to accept his call. He is always expanding our view of the ends of the earth. Kingdom work abounds if you will allow God to open your eyes to unnoticed territory both near and far.

Whenever we are ready to meet God with open hands and hearts he is ready to lead us beyond our comfort zones.

It was in Antioch that believers were given the nickname of Christian. Some historians say it was a derogatory term, and others say it is a badge of honor to be called Christian. While God uses us to fulfill his purposes we, like the church in Antioch, may be called many things. Joseph was given the nickname of Barnabas as he fulfilled his calling as an encourager of many. Believers were nicknamed Christians as they lived out their faith. What name will you be given as you allow God to push you further and further to what might seem like the end of the earth? Maybe the simplest and purest name would simply to be called a servant of Christ.

Your time with God’s Word
Acts‬ ‭1:8‬; 11:19-30;‬ ‭‭13:1-4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash