Am I Too Comfortable?
This question has been challenging me recently.
For years, comfort felt like the reward for doing things right. After three decades in corporate finance, I had everything the world says you should want: security, predictability, and success that could be measured in numbers and titles. I was grateful. But underneath the surface, something started to stir.
It wasn’t burnout. It was a quiet restlessness, a sense that comfort had started to replace calling. My days were full, yet my faith was coasting. I could feel God whispering, “There’s more.”
In January 2024, I was wrestling with whether to make a change. On January 29, Christy Wright released episode 230 of her “Get Your Hopes Up” podcast, entitled “What If God Doesn’t Want You to Be Comfortable?”
Her message cut straight to what I was feeling. She talked about how God sometimes removes what we rely on for security, not to punish us, but to draw us closer to Him. That episode gave words to what my heart already knew: God wasn’t calling me to more comfort; He was calling me to more dependence.
That same week, I made the decision to step away from my 30-year career at Nationwide. It wasn’t easy. Every logical reason told me to stay—the stability, the people, the predictability. But as Rick Warren once said, “God is more interested in your growth than your comfort.”
That truth reframed everything. Leaving wasn’t about walking away from something successful. Rather, it was about walking toward something spiritual. I was trading control for trust.
The first few months afterward were disorienting. I missed the rhythm, the clarity, the sense of knowing exactly what each day held. Yet in that uncertainty, I found something I’d been missing: reliance. God began rebuilding my foundation on dependence, not performance.
Discomfort, I realized, wasn’t punishment, it was preparation. It stripped away the illusion that I was self-sufficient and replaced it with the truth that I was sustained.
Discomfort and Multiplication
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents. A master entrusts his servants with resources—five, two, and one talent—and leaves them to steward what they’ve been given. Two servants invest and multiply their talents. One buries his in the ground out of fear.
The difference between the faithful and the fearful wasn’t ability; it was willingness to risk discomfort.
The servants who stepped into uncertainty experienced growth and reward. The one who chose comfort and safety lost even what he had.
That parable hits close to home. For years, I held onto the security of what I could manage. But multiplication—spiritual, personal, or vocational—only happens when we’re willing to release the soil and plant the seed. Faith, by definition, requires letting go of control.
When I left Nationwide, I didn’t know what fruit would come from it. But obedience demanded movement. And looking back, the seasons of greatest growth in my life have always required a measure of holy discomfort.
Comfort maintains. Discomfort multiplies.
Pushing Out into Deeper Waters
I’m also reminded of Luke 5, when Jesus meets Peter by the Sea of Galilee. Peter and his crew had fished all night and caught nothing. They were exhausted, cleaning their nets, ready to call it quits. Then Jesus told him to do something that made no sense: “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Every bit of Peter’s professional experience told him it wouldn’t work. The shallow water was safe, familiar, manageable. The deep water was risky. But Peter obeyed, “Because You say so, I will let down the nets.”
That moment changed everything. The miracle didn’t happen on the shore; it happened in the deep.
When God called me to leave the familiar and push out into deeper waters, I didn’t know what waited beneath the surface. But that’s where faith begins, where predictability ends and dependence starts.
Deep water is where growth happens. It’s where character matures, vision expands, and multiplication begins. And just like Peter, we discover that obedience often looks unreasonable until after the blessing breaks the surface.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.” I heard that shout clearly: Stop clinging to what’s comfortable and start trusting Me with what’s next.
Now, when life starts to feel predictable, I ask again: Am I too comfortable? Am I mistaking stability for obedience? Am I choosing what’s safe over what’s sacred?
Craig Groeschel says, “You can have comfort, or you can have growth—but you can’t have both.”
That tension isn’t something to fear; it’s something to follow. Because faith always lives in the space between security and surrender.
Discomfort isn’t the enemy. It’s the evidence that God is still stretching you, deepening your roots, refining your character, and preparing you for fruit you can’t yet see.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
You weren’t built to stay comfortable. You were built to grow deep, rise strong, and trust the One who calls you beyond the shore.
Reflection
Where might God be calling you to step out of comfort and into deeper waters?
What’s one “net” you need to let down in obedience this week?
Next Steps
For me personally, I will be taking time this week to push way out beyond my comfort zone into a new travel adventure. Stay tuned to hear more about where I will be going, what I will be doing, and how it went.
For all of us, I urge you to take time this week to pray. Ask God to reveal where comfort has replaced calling in your life and to give you the courage to obey wherever He leads.
Rooting for your success,
Scott
