—Taylor Stichler, October 27, 2021. Wow! It’s hard to believe that we are in our final week of the Red Letter Challenge! I’ve had a ton of fun digging into this challenge, it’s been especially rewarding to have done it with a small group together! I pray that if you have gotten involved with a small group during this challenge that you think of continuing to meet together to keep diving into God’s Word! We have a lot of resources that we would love to share with your group if you want!

During this final week of our challenge, we are focusing on going. I don’t know about you but going is something that can be a little scary! We have our comfort zones in our lives that are just that, comfortable. We often don’t leave our comfort zones because we don’t want to feel uncomfortable. This was very apparent when we took our daughter, Charlotte, to Disney World this past summer. Charlotte was born into a Disney family, so whether she likes it or not, vacationing to either Disney World or Disneyland will be part of her life. Over this past summer, we went to Disney World, and although this wasn’t her first time there, it was her first time being old enough to know where she was and what was going on. We had such high hopes that she would fall in love with Disney World and love every minute of it. This wasn’t true at all. Every single ride that we got on, she either cried or screamed the whole time. Even rides that she should have loved, she hated! At three years old, it can be pretty hard to distinguish between real and fake and Disney does a pretty good job at making things feel real. It was hard for Charlotte to understand that the rides were just pretend. 

We were pretty bummed that Charlotte was clearly not having that great of a time going on the rides. So when she asked to go on the Frozen ride again, we immediately walked back there to get in line again. The second time on the ride, Charlotte loved it! She knew exactly what was coming next, which character she was going to see, and where the drops and turns were. She knew just when Elsa was going to show up and start singing Let It Go. She hated the ride the first time, but loved it the next time! Charlotte clearly has a comfort zone, and riding a ride that she had no idea what was going to happen pushed her out of it. When she knew what to expect, the ride became part of her comfort zone.

We can be a lot like this when it comes to going and sharing Jesus with others. It can be uncomfortable to share Jesus with a world that has pretty much written Him off and can’t stand His followers. The more time we spend on this earth, the more we realize just how much we need Jesus! There are so many ways to share Jesus with those around us, but we won’t get comfortable with doing it unless we do it and do it often! Reading the Great Commission in Matthew 28 tells us to go, but it also gives us a great deal of comfort. Jesus tells us that He will be with us always, even when we are doing something that might be a little uncomfortable. My challenge for myself is to show Jesus in everything I do, so that sharing Jesus is something that is in my comfort zone, and something I just do without even thinking about it! Will I fail? Yes. Will Jesus be there when I am scared or uncomfortable? Yes! Will Jesus forgive me when I decide to not say anything when I should? Yes. And that brings me so much more comfort than knowing when Elsa will show up on a ride at Disney.