The Yoga Pants of Love and the Victims of Comfort

Posted in , , , , By Hannah 0 comments

Our church has been doing a study about what you need to carry around with you in life, taking Colossians 3 as its base scriptures. The sermons have really been hitting home and it's been awesome watching God work in our individual lives as a body of believers.

Also, it's been incredibly painful.

"Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful" (Colossians 3:12-15).

I believe I have clothed myself in some of those things, but honestly, I am lazy. I mean, sure, I'm dressed, but I'm wearing the yoga pants of love, guys. Yoga pants of love.

Maybe we're all  a little lazy. Yes, we preach love, but we shun acceptance, and because of our stubbornness to admit when we are wrong, we absolutely forfeit the grace that could be ours. 

Why? Because we have gotten so used to the feeling of being comfortable. We crave what is easy and choose to be lazy. We don't want to actually seek God, we want our church to feed us. We don't want to practice what we preach, because that costs more than we are willing to pay. It's like we all want welfare religion. I'm covered, even if we don't work for it.

Honestly, most of us signed up for Christianity because we were told that with Jesus our lives would be easier. But that's not actually true. With Jesus we do have hope, faith and love, but to practice those things - Yeah, that's often not easy, breezy or beautiful. Real love is a sacrifice. Diligence in practicing real love is a deliberate choice that is often incredibly hard to do. 

Being a Christian is not easy, but honestly, is there any other way to truly live? We need to be diligent in our faith. We need to apply more discipline. 

"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid" (Proverbs 12:1). And if that one doesn't smack you in the face, read Proverbs 13:4, too.

Keb Mo sings a wonderful song called Victims of Comfort and I think that's precisely the point. We are victims of our comfort and we have nothing to blame except our own laziness. 

I have been lazy with love, and God has called me out. I am only burdened because I am carrying around a six-piece sectional couch and gadgets that will help access Netflix. I grew weary of doing good and decided to just take it easy. I'm in yoga pants of love, ya'll. I am dressed and ready to squander. Praise the Lord and pass the Doritos. 

This sloppy faith is not helping anyone. We are being swallowed by our comfort zones, drowning in the plushness of pretending, and clearly refusing to make the changes needed to be living sacrifices to the Lord. Essentially,  all these shortcuts we make and take are shortchanging only ourselves.We need to be diligent in love, in peacemaking and forgiveness. And that takes a lot, friends. 

It's time to play Chuck Norris with our laziness and round house it in the face. What are you carrying around with you? Are they things to make you effective in ministry (love, patience, joy, freedom, grace, etc.)? Or are you weighed down, carrying all the things you think you need to keep comfortable?

Humble yourself before the Lord. Believers, He can't fix what you aren't even willing to admit. Maybe we all need to get knocked out of our Lazy-Boys and realize our faith problems are mostly first world problems and it's really ugly to the Lord. 

Let's get diligent with love. Let's start with being honest about how comfortable we have allowed ourselves to be and let's stop being stupid. Take time to read 1 Timothy 4 today. Ask God to help you start taking the first steps of being a diligent disciple to His life-changing grace.