The Currency of Comfort

While studying business Im always amazed of all the work it takes to do the simplest of tasks. Take coffee for example. Its a small simple comfort that many of us partake in daily. However, Ive seen the coffee farms. Someone had to walk along steep hillsides and plant the seeds. Some one had to care for the plants, some one had to harvest the cherries, some one had to dry and turn the cherries, then someone has to mill the beans, bag the beans, ship the beans, some one has to fly the plane and go through customs, some one had to work in customs, some one had to roast the beans carefully, some one had to grind the beans, and some one had to make the coffee. And that is just the coffee, imagine going through this process with each cup, each lid, each sleeve, each machine, the people who cut down the trees and milled the lumber so you have a nice rustic table to sit at, the people who made the glass that the store front uses to draw you in and catch your attention, the marketers that went to work to get you to buy their coffee instead of the other 50 choices you had, the people who clean the shop, order the supplies, manage the employees, organize the finances and some one has to make sure the bills get paid on time. And that doesn’t even include the process to make the various creamers, syrups, sugars that we can add to our order. All of this work to give you the simple comfort of a cup of coffee.

How many people had to wake up when they didn’t want to, struggle to get to work, not make enough to pay their bills, deal with grumpy bosses and coworkers, get denied vacation time, worked through sicknesses and pain. There is a great deal of Discomfort that was given towards getting you that simple comfort of a cup of coffee. 

Now you, you also had to wake up when you didn’t want to, go to a job that you may or may not hate, you had to deal with a grumpy boss, you might be the grumpy boss. But you paid the price of discomfort, so that you could earn money, and use that money to buy the comfort of a cup of coffee. 

My point in all of this, is that Comfort always comes at a price and it is highly transactional. Any  physical comfort that you have, has been paid for with discomfort. The question is, who is paying for your comfort? Who’s comfort are you willing to pay for? 

In my work in Anti-Trafficking, we see massive amounts of discomfort, abuse, pain, suffering, and even death being forced upon people, all while the people in power harvest all the comfort for themselves. And when we look at efforts to fight against this injustice, the amount of discomfort that is needed from so many, to get people free, get them healed, and stop the people who are doing it, the mountain of discomfort gets bigger. 

I think about this with Jesus, how much discomfort He went through to give us the greatest comfort of all, and then calls us to do likewise.

Following Jesus is denying our own selves and taking up our cross and following Him. This means we take on the discomfort required to bring others comfort. It is both spiritual and physical. We are called to bring the good news of the greatest comfort given in Christ, and take care of the discomforts of each other. This includes our spouse, our children, our parents, our customers, our suppliers, our co-workers, our friends, even our enemies. We are the ones willing to carry the discomforts of others, and alleviate their suffering. This functions best in the community of the family and the church. If everyone is bearing the discomfort of each other, there is a lot of comfort to go around. Its hard to do this if you are the only one doing it, yet it is possible when God becomes the deepest source of our comfort and you begin put our full reliance on Him. 

So who can you give comfort to today? Who can you be uncomfortable for? Who has been paying for your comfort, that you’ve maybe taken for granted? 

Embrace the life in Jesus that we are called to live. Find Joy in the discomfort of loving others. Find comfort in the constant Love of God and your place in His body. Pay It Forward. Freely as we have received, freely we are to give. 

Be Blessed,

Phil Morris