Many of us live in comfort zones. We like our comfort zones because they are so comfortable. They are familiar to us, making it easy to live there. They don’t require much thought or effort as we live from our routines and habits, and go through our days on auto-pilot.

One problem with comfort zones is that they turn into ruts we crawl through day after day, year after year. They are also very uncomfortable to break out of, especially for those of us who like the security of them. We know what life looks like in our comfort zones. It’s predictable, with no surprises, nothing to throw us off kilter. However, there’s nothing new to look forward to, no joy, and it becomes a hopeless, lifeless existence.

We begin to think there must be more to life than this, and even wish we could find a way to climb out of our dead-end ruts. And once in a while we muster up the courage to try to climb out. But when we reach the edge of the rut, we are faced with taking a risk, and it’s at that point our courage fails and we quietly slip back into our comfortable rut to continue crawling through life.

Another problem with comfort zones is that we not only miss living, we miss so much of what God has for our lives. We miss out on fulfilling the plans and purposes He has for us, and can totally miss the destiny we were created for.

God’s plans for us are good plans, plans to give us hope and a future. (See Jeremiah 29:11.) But we generally cannot fulfill those plans from our comfort zones. We don’t need God if we choose to stay there since it’s a place of automatic living that we’ve mastered and can do on our own.

God has designed His plans for us to be a little beyond our reach so that we need to rely on Him to fulfill them. That’s where risk comes in. That’s where leaving the security of our comfort zones requires us to trust that God will really help us. That’s the hardest part of getting out of our ruts and comfort zones. We must learn to fully rely on God and His faithfulness to help us face the risk, believing that He is who He says He is.

As much as I trust God and know He’s always been so faithful to take care of us and provide for every need, I still find it hard to face the risk of leaving my comfort zones. But the Lord has finally helped me to do so when I got up the courage to say yes to moving into the assignment He’s had for me.

Some years ago I wrote a devotional book called Life Observations – Lessons from Daily Living. However, I never got it published. The Lord said the time is now, and He provided a publisher who wants to publish my book. I’m facing the risk of trying to raise the funds to publish it.

If you have enjoyed reading this column over the years, I invite you to be a part of this journey of bringing my dream to a reality. I have done a Kickstarter project to raise the funds. If interested, you can see it at www.kickstarter.com. Search my name or book title. Thank you for any help you can give.

Hope Ministries is a Christian counseling center, and we are here to help. If you would like to speak confidentially with someone, give us a call at 845-482-5300.