Uncomfortable Thoughts 

Contributed by Stephen Wickman:  St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean

“What would they do if they were tested with a great tragedy, wouldn’t they need God for comfort?” 

That was the question asked by one of our Baha’i friends at last week’s Interfaith Coffee House (please come!) in response to my snarky suggestion that, looking at the lives of my son and his wife and daughter at least, one doesn’t have to believe in God or practice a particular faith to lead a good and contented life. It got me thinking. 

It’s not always the need for comfort that brings us to God, although there’s a long strain in Christianity that sees this. In fact, listening to a BBC broadcast about prison conversions the other day, I was struck by how these events occur most often when a person is at their lowest ebb. 

But then there is the case of Saul on the road to Damascus:  the man who became Paul knew in his heart that persecution was not God’s will.  Justice, humanity, and love for one’s enemies – not comfort – was the basis for his conversion. Of course, when Paul was imprisoned in what is now Turkey, he led his fellow prisoners in hymns to God even as they experienced a massive earthquake. He told them to take comfort in the Lord and not to escape and ended up converting their jailor! 

If you examine the life of Christ or Buddha or perhaps of other religious leaders, “comfort” is not the first word that comes to mind. They struggled often, and almost as frequently they called us to live a life of discomfort. As Jesus put it in Matthew 10: 

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

For I have come to set a man against his father, 
and a daughter against her mother, 
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’ 

Not exactly a message of comfort. 

But I’m sure our Baha’i colleague had something else in mind when he used the word “comfort.” In the face of adversity, one can indeed take comfort in the assurance that God is with you and that someday soon this will be overcome.  That’s what motivated Paul in captivity, and that’s what has helped so many in the world overcome injustice. 

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.