Stepping out of your comfort zone is rarely pleasant. It creates anxiety, uncertainty, and frustration. Yet, it is often in those exact moments of discomfort that profound growth occurs.
Last month, CRASH leader Sheri Greger and I traveled to North Carolina with a group of high school students for summer camp. Right from the start, the camp set high expectations, both for the students and the leaders accompanying them. The students were not allowed to have phones, and we, as leaders, were not in charge of the daily activities.
For the students, the phone policy was a huge surprise. You could see the concern written across their faces as they realized they were about to step far outside their comfort zones and spend an entire week in the North Carolina mountains completely disconnected from technology. Remarkably, their discomfort lasted only one day. By the second day, they had practically forgotten they even owned phones, fully immersing themselves in the world around them.
However, the students weren’t the only ones pushed past their familiar boundaries; we, the leaders who attended, also experienced the unfamiliar. Our original plans included participating right alongside the students in all their activities—wanting to join them, hike together, and share in every moment is a core part of our Ascension culture. We always try our best to practice our foundational values: Together we rise, together we walk, together we participate, together we worship, together we serve and more…
At this camp, though, the experience for us was fundamentally different. We didn’t participate in most of the daytime activities, nor could we join them for their morning and evening devotions. Throughout the day, Sheri and I felt deeply uncomfortable. We felt as though we were failing to fulfill our roles as Ascension leaders, and there were several moments when we honestly felt useless.
As we approached the end of the week, however, clarity set in. We realized that this uncomfortable setting was actually a blessing. It wasn’t just the students who needed to step outside their comfort zones; we leaders needed to navigate unfamiliar territory, too.
This realization prompted me to reflect on the many ways Jesus exemplified going beyond comfort zones throughout His ministry:
- Jesus left the glory of His home in heaven to come to earth. As Philippians 2:7 reminds us, He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
- He deliberately entered harsh conditions, spending 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the desert.
- He showed His disciples the importance of stepping outside cultural norms by speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, inviting His followers into Samaria rather than avoiding it.
Many of us have experienced moments like these in our own lives. They are often difficult and disorienting. Yet, in these challenging, unfamiliar places, God is actively present, waiting to reveal something new about His kingdom. At the end of the camp, we asked them if they would participate in another similar camp. They replied, “Yes, because it was a unique experience.” As leaders, we achieved our goal of providing the students and ourselves with an unique experience high in the mountains of North Carolina. When we are about to get out of our comfort zone, we simply need to release our desire for control and trust in God’s guidance, just as the disciples did when they stepped into the unknown to proclaim the Good News.
Pastor Edwin