“He’s (or she’s) in the zone.” Have you heard that before? Maybe you’ve even said it about yourself, that you’re totally focused on a particular project or task. “In the zone,” I’ve found, often is a good place to be. But there are many other kinds of zones – time zones, residential and commercial zones, no-fly zones, relationship zones. Even something we call “comfort zones.”
Most of us like our comfort zones. They’re familiar, predictable, safe. We can establish secure, clearly defined boundaries, manage expectations, and generally reap expected results. The risks of failure and disappointments can be kept at a minimum. So, what’s not to like about comfort zones?
For one thing, they can become tedious, even boring. They might cause us to settle for things easily within our reach. The routine of making the same widgets day after day might seem risk-free, but life and work should amount to more than making widgets.
Another drawback of comfort zones is they might prevent us from experiencing – and enjoying – the unknown and untried. We might have no idea what we’re missing unless we attempt to discover what it could be. You can’t learn to swim unless you’re willing to jump into the pool.
What if people like Thomas Edison and others had remained comfortable with gas lights, or even torches? Those provided illumination, but not the convenience, efficiency or safety of incandescent lights and lighting innovations that have followed. Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright refused to be discouraged by naysayers who insisted, “Man will never fly”? If not for them, we might still be trying to cross country in trains – or even wagon trains.
We commonly think of peanuts as snacks removed from a shell, can or jar, or peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, your choice). But in the early 1900s, George Washington Carver, born into slavery, wanted nothing to do with any kind of comfort zone. Instead, he applied his genius to developing hundreds of products using peanuts, as well as sweet potatoes and soybeans. He also was a stalwart advocate of crop rotation and agricultural education.
Being averse to comfort zones isn’t limited to those who answered the adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Explorer Christopher Columbus gave vivid picture of the pitfalls that can result from remaining nestled in one’s comfort zone. He famously said, “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Long before that, however, people were learning the pros and cons of comfort-zone life. The Bible gives dozens of examples. There was Abram (later called Abraham), called by God to leave the friendly confines of Haran. The Lord instructed him, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-2).
That must have sounded like a wonderful promise, but God hadn’t told Abram where He was sending him, how long it would take to get there, or how this “great nation” would come about. Abram trusted the Lord, left the Haran comfort zone, and hit the road with his wife, Sarai, nephew Lot, their servants and possessions. Joseph, Daniel, Jesus’ disciples, even the apostle Paul responded in similar ways.
Among the strangest examples were the Israelites, freed after four centuries of bondage in Egypt. We might think people escaping inconceivably oppressive slavery would never look back, for even a second, but for them that wasn’t the case.
Wandering around the desert weeks after waving good-bye to captivity, the Israelites began to grumble to their leader, Moses: “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3). Even after God miraculously provided them with manna, quail, and water from a rock, they continued to favor hindsight over foresight, becoming shortsighted.
What does it take to step boldly out of one’s comfort zone to face the challenges of an uncertain but promising future? In a word, courage.
Following the death of Moses, God selected Joshua to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. Recognizing the daunting task of guiding a rebellious people, the Lord gave Joshua these instructions:
”Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go…. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:6-9).
What great things might God have in store for you, if only you’re willing to step outside your own comfort zone? Like Joshua, be strong and courageous!
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