When Comfort is an Illusion

Copyright 2007 by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

We have a tendency to believe our own illusions rather than the truth because the illusions seem easier to live with. The Christian life requires us to face the difficulties of human existence head-on with the expectation that God will use them to mold and make us into people who reflect His Son’s character. Human beings desperately want to avoid pain, often at any cost. The degree that we as believers give into that desire reflects the depth and authenticity of our Christian commitment….or the lack thereof.

Most of the illusions we believe in have to do with getting something for nothing, or at least for very little. While it is true that salvation is a free gift the walking out of that salvation is costly. The saving grace of God also pays the price of our sanctification but that does not mean we do not have to give anything up to actualize it. The price we pay is the release of the fantasy that life in a fallen world can be made less painful by self-indulgence, the illegitimate use of earthly comforts.

It is very important to state here that comfort that does not derive from sinful acts or attitudes is a gift of God. He is in fact the “God of all comfort” and does not begrudge us its balm when He Himself provides it at the right time in the right way.

But self-indulgent comfort is something else. It is the comfort we seek as a way to avoid necessary pain. An example might be the person who is given medication in the time of shock following a terrible personal loss. A mother who is prescribed tranquilizers after hearing of the terrible death of her child is probably receiving legitimate short-term comfort from them at a moment of overwhelming loss. The problem comes if she becomes dependant on the drug in the months and years that follow because she refuses to experience the grief it chemically wards off. The grief process is a necessary reaction to loss and it is ordained by God, not only to facilitate healing but also to develop empathy as a character trait in the one who grieves. By living in a chemically induced illusion of escape from pain the woman in question is avoiding walking out a God-ordained aspect of her sanctification. Rather than depending on God to bring good out of her loss she is short-circuiting her very ability to receive that good.

People medicate themselves to relieve pain in all kinds of ways. The drug in question may be sex, shopping, eating, sleeping or any number of other things. Notice that the four mentioned are not necessarily evil in and of themselves. It is their misuse as avoiders of necessary discomfort that brings sin into the equation. Addiction is the fruit of repeated self-medication and the fact is that sin is an aspect of both the beginning and the continuation of any addiction. Choosing to endure dark times is never easy but illusory comfort that ends in a whole new kind of addictive misery on top of the original misery is a devil’s bargain.

Life in a fallen world truly is difficult and probably no Christian can honestly say they have not taken the route of avoidance and taken it more than once. It is hard for us to see that bearing life’s hurts with the help of God ultimately leads to an enduring joy, one that grants us a taste of Heaven that is entirely worth what we must go through to obtain it. But if we are willing to open our eyes to this truth we will never regret submitting to it and one day we will thank our God for what he did with our pain in a place where that pain is banished forever.