Writer, Don’t Get Too Comfortable

by Martin Wiles @LinesFromGod

One of my grandsons is a pensive tike—even more so as he nears puberty. 

My daughter has always sent us comical and serious things our grandsons say. One day, after this one read his devotion, he entered the den and said, “Mom, the devotion today was about John the Baptist. Now, I don’t think we have to move to the wilderness, but I don’t think we should be too comfortable.” 

Reading about John, I don’t think I would get too comfortable with his lifestyle: “John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4 NLT).

Smart kid, my grandson. At eleven, he has things figured out spiritually. I just hope he remembers this as he ages and the temptations increase. 

Most of us love stuff. As I write this, Amazon Prime Day began the day before. Deals popped up on every device we opened. Good deals. But the thing was, we didn’t need what most of them offered.

Jesus pegged a balanced life when he said, “’And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31 NLT). 

One of the proverbs also says it well: “Give me neither poverty nor riches—Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9 NKJV). 

God doesn’t take issue with us enjoying the things he has created. And, admittedly, we writers love stuff: computers, Mac books, iPads, earbuds, pens, pencils, paper, notepads, apps, calendars. We also tend to love our favorite genres and stick to them when writing. That’s not all bad. After all, we write best when we write about what we know. 

However, moving out of our genre—at least temporarily—or writing about something we know little about provides an opportunity to stretch our craft and our minds. When we get too comfortable where we are, we stagnate, like a water source with no inlet or outlet. 

But we must also monitor our comfortableness with the tools of our trade. We can focus on the trees and miss the forest. The stuff begins to own us instead of us owning the stuff. The writing play toys turn our attention to play time, leaving us little or no time to use them to do what God called us to do: write.

My grandson was right. God doesn’t want us to get too comfortable—in our spiritual or writing lives. He knows when we do, our priorities tend to slip or jumble up—like the rich man in one of Jesus’ parables whose crops produced abundantly one year. He planned to build more barns, sit back, and enjoy a long life. God reminded him that life was short. We never know when it will end. And we never know how many more writing opportunities we will have. 

So, no, we don’t have to move to the wilderness or become extreme minimalists. I don’t have to sell my laptop and iPad and return to handwriting or typing devotions, articles, and books and then sending them by snail mail. Yet, we must balance the physical, spiritual, emotional, writing, and familial aspects of our lives and, at the same time, avoid getting too comfortable with any one of them. 

Our sole purpose is to do what God created us to do in our lifetime. And he will give us whatever we need to accomplish his plan. For John the Baptist, it was locusts, wild honey, and camel hair garments. I hope it will be a little more than that for me. 

As my grandson said, “God doesn’t want us to get too comfortable.” After all, life is too short. 

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Writer, Don't Get Too Comfortable from Martin Wiles (@LinesFromGod) on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Martin Wiles lives in Greenwood, SC, and is the founder of Love Lines from God. He is a freelance editor, English teacher, pastor, and author. He serves as Managing Editor for both Christian Devotions and Vinewords.net and is an instructor for the Christian PEN (professional editor’s network). Wiles is a multi-published author. His most recent book, Hurt, Hope and Healing: 52 Devotions That Will Lead to Spiritual Health, is available on Amazon. He and his wife are parents of two and grandparents of seven. He can be contacted at mandmwiles@gmail.com.