Comfort Zone

They were preparing their nets, a job rhey been doing for as long as they could remember, fishing was their lives as it was their father before them and his father before that and so on. They were in their comfort zone, doing what had become second nature to them - they could do this job virtually in their sleep. 

That was about it change, the Rabbi came and called them, "Come follow me" (Mark 1:17).  To be called by a rabbi was to become his disciple, to become a teacher like him. They were fishermen - few occupations had more steps between them than what they were and what they were called to become. 

Talk about stepping outside your comfort zone!  A rabbi would hardly talk to a fisherman. A disciple of a rabbi was normally picked from the best of students and groomed for years before being invited to become his disciple. These men had no background, no pedigree, no training. 

They were called to do what they could not do except for God. They were called to step completely out of their comfort zone and begin to do what had to be mind-boggling to them. And yet, "Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him" (Mark 1:20).

No thinking it over, no testing the water, they were called by the Lord and they followed. So often I have heard Christians turn down ministry opportunities saying, "I'm just not comfortable doing that."  Or, "I've never done that before."  When did comfort or prior experience become a part of God's calling?

Moses said he couldn't speak well enough to be a law-giver. Gideon tried to beg off becoming a judge because he had no standing. Peter told Jesus to leave him alone because he was not righteous enough to be an apostle. God's call stood because he doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.  Are you beginning to feel uncomfortable?  Come on then, step into it!  Jus' Sayn.