Attention: You are Now Leaving The Comfort Zone

I love comfort. Therefore, I really love comfort zones.

But today I am about as far out of my comfort zone as Donald Trump is outside of the kindness zone.

As I write this I am on a plane, which many of us (especially tall people with bad backs) find uncomfortable enough. And I am not just talking about the physical discomfort some of us feel; I am talking about the anxiety that comes from lacking control.

But there is something else about this trip that mocks my desire to chilling my comfort zone: We are headed to Africa. More specifically, Tanzania.

Our daughter and her husband are turning 30 this year, and they are one of these wise couples who choose shared experiences over gift giving. So they wanted to take a safari trip (think cameras, not guns) to the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania, one of the great parks of the world. Somewhat surprisingly, they asked Amy and I to tag along.

I say “surprisingly” because when I was turning 30 some 15 years ago* I would not have even thought of asking my parents to crash a big trip. But Sarah and Mitch are way cooler about this than I was.

So here we are on a 13 overnight hour flight from O’Hare to Adda Ababa, the Capitol of Ethiopia. We then have a seven hour layover before a two hour flight into Tanzania. Altogether the trip from Indy will take about 26 hours one way.

To be honest, I was dreading this travel part of this trip. I have certain back and leg issues (scrapnel injuries, aggravated when I played in the NFL*) that sometimes make sitting at my desk for just 30 minutes painful. I also find international travel stressful. I’m always tempted to worry about things going wrong (missed connections, losing my passport, the paparazzi harassing me). And what, exactly, are we two Hoosiers supposed to do with a seven hour layover in Adda Ababa? Do they even have Cornhole?

But last week, for some reason, a switch flipped. I decided (and strangely it wasn’t a hard decision) to enjoy not only the trip as a whole, but each part of the travel, including the 13 hour main flight and seven hour layover.

I’m actually not sure what allowed me to so easily flip this switch. The human mind is a mysterious thing. Maybe just God’s grace? Prayer?

In any case this is what I chose. And it’s working! I’m happy. I have already talked to several people from places I will never get to visit (Togo, South Sudan). And there is no better place to people watch than the international terminal at O’Hare. Especially if you, like me, live in Whitetoastville.

I am preaching to myself: “things will go wrong. They almost always do on an international trip. But think how few people in this world get to have this experience. And you have your wonderful wife by your side. So be grateful, idiot, and don’t sweat the small stuff.”

Now that I think of it, maybe, just maybe, this would be a pretty good sermon to preach to myself all the time. Yes, I have suffered. And I have a nasty surgery coming up on April 4th. But really, I am incredibly privileged. I am a white, male American with a fulfilling job. It doesn’t get much easier than that. I have an amazing wife and daughters and a wonderful church family. Most of all, I have been given the great gift of God’s grace, through Jesus: the eternal fount that I can drink from daily.

So what does it matter if the airline bumps our seats and gives me a worse one than I chose for us (as they did)? What does it matter if the flight comes with a small side of pain? Maybe my comfort zone needs to grow a lot larger.

Or, maybe, I just need to go there less often.

Let me be a little vulnerable here. Since our son’s death, I think I have spent too much time in my cozy comfort zone, doing very little that is hard or challenging or risky. I don’t reproach myself for that. Grief is not only pain, but also brokeness, and sometimes the limp doesn’t go away. But if the biblical story of Jacob says anything it is that it’s better to gimp after God and His ways than run away from Him.

So I think I will visit my comfort zone less often. This is one frequent-flyer club I can do without.

Does that preach? Do you need to reexamine how much you are valuing the comfortable and predictable and (if we are being honest) boring?

Okay, enough sermon-disguised-as-an-anecdote for today.

But no promises for tomorrow.

As it should be.

*No need to fact-check this. You should trust a pastor.