Comfort VS Christ

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing"Philippians 2:14
    
    This verse keep running through my head Tuesday morning as fifteen of us piled into a twelve passenger kombi on our way to Phakamani, a village three hours outside of Bulawayo. We were leaving at 6:45 in the morning and no one was happy to be awake. No one was comfortable in the kombi because everyone was squashed into the seats. People moved from seat to seat trying complaining saying something was wrong with each seat and they could not get comfortable. They complained it was hot, they complained there wasn't enough room, or they complained they were so uncomfortable. At one point I broke down saying: "If our driver keeps swerving like this we are going to have problems." or " If I have to get out of this kombi one more time Im going to flip out". For the most part I tried to keep quite, talking to myself and to God.

    Four hours into what was supposed to be a three hour drive (and turned out to take close to six hours)- after many annoyed comments and a lot of complaining remarks- God reminded me of this:

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing"Philippians 2:14

    I did not come to Africa this summer to be comfortable. God did not call me to live in luxury while people came to me to hear the Gospel. He called me to GO and share the Gospel with ALL nations. No where in the Bible does it say "be comfortable".

• When its so hot I think Im going to die:

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing"Philippians 2:14

• When Im sleeping in the cold on the hard ground:

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing"Philippians 2:14

• when Im eating sadza for the second meal in a row:

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing"Philippians 2:14
    
     I did not come to Africa to be comfortable. I did not choose to follow Christ to be comfortable. Christ never promised a life of comfort to those who follow Him. He does say that the Christian walk will be full of trials, tribulations, and persecution. But I will choose to follow Him anyway with a joyful heart. Scripture says that we are to rejoice always (Phil 4:4 and 1 Thes 5:16 are a few of my favorites).

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? - Matthew 16:24-26

-Amanda