“REED” This

Comfort or Growth?

The last few days I’ve been working on finishing the new flooring in the main part of the house. I started on this project over a year ago and am finally about finished with the last bedroom. I have noticed a big difference with the luxury vinyl plank flooring verses the old carpet. That old carpet had a nice cushion underneath that the new doesn’t. There is a little bit of give, but not near that of the carpet with the padding underneath. In some ways I miss that padding. It felt nice walking on it. But, the carpet looked old and had several places where it was stained too deep to get out. As I cut strips and sections of that carpet, there was all kinds of sand, dust, and dirt that came out of it. We had run a vacuum cleaner over it many times, yet that sand and dirt was still deeply embedded in that carpet. Then, the padding underneath was exposed. The part that made the carpet feel nice was actually the worst. The amount of dirt, dust, and sticky grossness within it was repulsive. I definitely had to have my work gloves on when handling it. My mind would race thinking about what had gotten into it as it was walked upon for the last 25 years. I had to make myself stop before I got sick. After it was all removed from the house and the subfloor was scraped, swept, and completely cleaned I finally could breathe without fear of something bad coming into my nose. I’m sure the carpet was nice when it was first laid down, but it trapped all kinds of dirt and filth over the years. And the padding, what made it feel the nicest, was our worst enemy in holding the filth.

We get trapped into and by all sorts of things that feel good. We like those things and think they are good because of how they make us feel. The difficulty with that is what feels good is not always the best. Some things that feel good are actually trapping us and damaging to our lives and our walk with Christ. They may have been good before, but now they have become old and are holding us back from growing and moving forward to better things that God has for us. They may not feel as comfortable, but that’s only because they are new, and we are being challenged as we are growing out of our comfort zone. Paul encourages the believers in Philippi to grow in the Lord as he writes, “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” (Philippians 1:9-10) We can’t be happy staying in a spiritual rut because it feels good. We must grow in our walk with Christ so we can know Him more and experience the fullness of Christ and His glory. Getting out of a comfortable rut is not always easy, but we must if we want to grow.

That new floor may not feel quite as good to my bare feet as the carpet did. But I know it definitely looks better and no doubt is better for my allergies and health. I’m glad to get rid of that old stuff. There’s no telling what it was doing to my sinuses. And I don’t want anything holding me back from growing in the Lord. I’m ready to walk on that new path of growth God has planned for me (Eph. 2:10).

Bro. Paul Reed

Tuesday, October 19, 2021