Episode 26: Courage Over Comfort

In this episode of Change Chasers, we explore the theme Courage Over Comfort. From Esther’s bold decision to risk everything for her people, to Tim Tebow being bold in sharing his faith, to J.K. Rowling’s persistence in chasing her dream—these stories remind us that growth and change never happen in the comfort zone.

 You’ll be inspired to identify where you’ve been holding onto comfort, and how to take courageous steps toward the life God has called you to. Courage may cost you comfort, but it will lead you to purpose.

#ChangeChasers #CourageOverComfort #FaithAndCourage #PurposeDrivenLife #BeBrave #ChasingChange #Esther414 #TimTebowLeadership #InspirationDaily #FaithInAction

Faith in Action // Change in Motion

Transcript

0:14

Well, hey friends. Welcome back to the Change Chasers podcast, y'all. I'm just so excited for this time together. I'm glad that you are here. I know that your time is valuable and so. I'm just really grateful to be able to have this time together, and so wherever you're listening then hey, thanks for allowing me to speak in your ear, so to speak, just for this brief amount of time that hopefully will bring some encouragement to your week, maybe even a little bit of a challenge. As this week y'all, we are going to be talking about how do we have courage over comfort. So with this podcast, you know that we are constantly talking about topics that are all about chasing growth and fate, and it's just the kind of change necessarily that pushes us into. The life that God destined for us, right? And that he designed for us to go and live. And so with today's theme of courage over comfort, I know that we can all agree that we love our comfort, right? I mean, just woo-hoo, yes, gimme a double dose. Sign me up for some extra comfort, especially if it is a location or a place that I just feel so much peace. Right? Just so much comfort. And wherever it is, because comfort feels safe. It feels easy, and it feels familiar. And with all of those things combined, then oh, it just gets us all up in our good feels. Right? But when I stop and I think about with this podcast and the idea that we are chasing growth, I really know that real growth and impact y'all, they don't happen in the comfort zone. They happen when we step out, encourage. Even when it is uncomfortable. And so in scripture and thinking about history, I do truly believe that there's all types of different examples, right? To where some real life stuff happens that show us just how and why. I think that courage is always worth it. So with that said, we're gonna jump right on in to hot take number one. A biblical example that I wanted us to talk on today's episode is that of the story of Esther. When I think of courage over comfort, my mind goes straight to Esther from the Bible. She was a young Jewish woman living in Persia and y'all, against all odds, she became. A queen, right? So many women call themselves a queen and it's awesome. It's so much fun, right? But in this real time reality, like she was in this complete and just amazing, semi powerful, I guess, position more so. The king obviously had all the power, but she became queen. But her comfort was threatened when her people faced destruction. Her cousin Mordecai, as we know as scripture tells us he told her in one of the most famous verses that I hear quoted so often, especially if you're talking about women from the Bible, or somebody's gonna pull in like a Powerhouse woman series, you know, Esther four 14, we've probably all heard it. If we are aligned with scripture, it says. Mordecai told her, who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this? And so we know that Esther could have chosen just to stay in her comfort zone. She could have chosen to just stay quiet and she could have chosen to ultimately have self-protection, right. Just to protect herself and avoid any risk, any harm but instead y'all, she chose courage. She approached the king as scripture tells us, and even though it was dangerous, she spoke up for her people. I just love that, that is so encouraging to me because I just see Esther's intentionality being lived out that of bravery, right? I mean, her bravery literally saved a nation. She's proof that courage may cost us our comfort. It costed her her comfort. But y'all, she showed us the example. She lived out the example honestly, that you can change the course of history. And so as I reflect on the powerful story of what we get to learn from Esther Astoria, and I'm just inspired to ask myself, and so I also want you to ask yourself, where might God be asking you? To step out like Esther, maybe even to speak up. I'll say often when I speak to groups that I'm not calling you out, but I'm calling you up. And so with that thought process of where is it that maybe Father God is saying to you, this is your moment, don't shrink back. Just a little question to get you thinking about from the beautiful story of Esther and how she chose courage over comfort. Hot take number two. Here we go. I'm gonna hit you with one that I think is a little bit more of a modern day, uh, history that we're gonna kind of talk about. Not necessarily far out history, but definitely somebody that I think any of us that likes sports and love Jesus, then we will all enjoy. Talking about the good old Tim Tebow, right? And so when I stop and I think about Tim Tebow, even though he played college ball at Florida, we will not hold that against him. For any of you listening, Matt, you are a Go Gators Florida fan, and by all means, keep on cheering on your team. Love Billy Naper and what he stands for as a man of God. But talking about for this episode's sake is just thinking about somebody in modern day history, and as I was just thinking through this and wanting to have some relevant content. For us to talk about in this episode. I think that he is a great example of choosing courage over comfort in the middle of his college football playing career, y'all, he was very outspoken and sharing his Christian faith, and then he openly faced criticism in the NFL under so much scrutiny of the media, right? I mean, it was like a constant fiasco. It just seemed like all the time they were talking about. How he would kneel and pray on the field. I mean, that was one of the things that continued to go viral. Social media was really taking off in this time. And so I do know that from that and remembering all of that parts of, you know, this last decade or so, that sometimes Tim Tebow was mocked, sometimes he was celebrated though, right? I mean, it just is kind of dependent on. Who it was that had his name coming outta their mouth. Like it just kind of depended on whoever it was. I mean, some people refer to it as Tebow, right? Tim Tebow though y'all, he faced criticism for openly giving God glory and giving God credit. In all of his interviews, he held firm in his own personal integrity, and he refused to compromise his values even when it cost him opportunities. Tim stayed true to his personal convictions on and off the field, and I just think he's such a really cool, great modern day example of choosing courage over comfort. And as you study up on him, y'all, some of the coolest things about him is that he founded the Tim Tebow Foundation, which serves orphans and children with medical needs and individuals with disabilities Annually, he hosts a Night to Shine, which is a prom for people with special needs. And y'all, this is happening worldwide. It's just such a really cool, awesome, pleasant person to talk about because Tebow is a great modern day example of someone who has chosen courage over comfort. His courage and action continues to impact many lives. So for those of us that are sports fans, then maybe Tim Tebow's, courage over comfort example will inspire you. Hopefully. So I know it has me as I was just thinking about all the cool things that he has done for the Upbuilding of the Kingdom by way of having a servant minded heart. And an attitude of gratitude about how may he love others well. And so with that then my hopeful encouragement is that this story and bringing it to life for us to chat about, for you to listen about today is just to think about how will his story, how we'll allow his story to impact you for personal, real life application to be more bold in your own faith. And so then jumping in for another thought from the Bible, another really cool person from scripture and thinking about giving you guys another biblical example is I wanted to share briefly today about Daniel. And so Daniel from the Bible, we often. I've heard the stories. If you are connected with a church or you know, read the Bible in scriptural context, and maybe you haven't, maybe you're listening and you are not a believer, and maybe you do not know about this guy, Daniel, I'm talking about. I encourage you, you'll pick up a Bible, read it. If you don't have one, you could always Google. Um, chat GB Tia and just ask like, Hey, what is it? What's the story about this dude? She's talking about from Daniel. But we know in Daniel chapter six that Daniel continued to pray openly even when it was illegal. In the context of that time, he was supposed to put the shut to the up and he said, Nope, not me. And so when I stop and I just think about making the cool modern day connection of like Daniel Tim Tebow prayed publicly. And he refused to hide his faith even when it wasn't popular. And man, y'all, when I stop and I think about his example of choosing courage over comfort, it really truly inspires me and helps me to feel more confident in wanting to do the same. Right? And then next up, our hot take number three is just a positive life story that I think that we can all relate to. I've actually mentioned this person before, but. I love the success story of JK Rowling. Um, so thinking through that of like her story and the, the positivity that happened in her life, we all know that if you read it all or if you've watched movies, you know that that is the author for the Harry Potter series. We know though that her story, and if you don't know this, she was a single mom who was living in poverty. She was struggling just to get by, just to literally be able to put food on the table. She had every reason to stay in her comfort zone, give up on her dream, and just play it safe. Right? But instead y'all, she had the courage to keep writing even while facing rejection, after rejection, after rejection from this publisher, that publisher, that publisher, I mean, it was rejection after rejection for all of her writing. But y'all, JK believed in the story inside of her. Even when others didn't. Eventually her courage paid off and her books went on to impact millions of people around the world. And then of course,, they turned her books into movies, right? So her journey reminds us that courage is often choosing to keep going when quitting would be so much easier, and courage is showing up again and again, even when the world says no. Right. No way. Jose zip, zilch. And so thinking about sharing these examples on today's episode, that of Esther and Daniel from the Bible, along with Tim Tebow and, and JK Rowling, the author, I want to just ask in this, giving you the opportunity to think about on your own, where do you feel pressure to stay silent about your faith? I'm pausing on purpose because I wanna give a moment for you to just kinda have a moment to breathe and think about where do you feel pressure to stay silent about your faith? And with that thought, are you choosing comfort? Just wanting to be, you know, just fitting in, right, staying quiet, or are you choosing courage? Are you standing firm in Christ? And so my encouragement to all of us, myself as well, is that Justice Tim Tebow used his platform. Y we each have a platform in our own daily lives, in our workplaces, our schools, and our families. You know, if you just think about it, all of the circle of influence that we get to have around us on a day-to-day basis, the choice really is up to us. Are we going to choose courage or comfort? Just something to kind of make you stop and go, Hmm, alright, let me think on it. Right? Are we going to choose courage or comfort? You really can't dwell within both at the same time. You're either being courageous or you're being over here. On a comfort side, there's really, as it tells us, some revelations. There's no lukewarm. And so just kind of jumping in now, we'll be ending out the episode here in just a brief moment, but I wanted to share a change chaser challenge for us for this week, and I wanna just kind of have it as maybe a thoughtful thought is just that courage isn't about being loud though, and I think that that's too often how. We can just kind of get caught up into that, right? You've got to be performative, you gotta be boisterous, you gotta be big, bold, and bad, you know, kind of thing. Or social media makes us feel like we've gotta have everything looking a certain way or you know, just there's so much comparison. That unfortunately surrounds us on a day-to-day basis. And so what I really wanted to think about in a thoughtful way today is that I would like to encourage you guys is that courage isn't about being loud and proud and like woo kind of thing. I believe that courage is about being faithful. And so with that said, for this week, I want to just encourage you guys myself as well as that, may we step out in. In faith where it feels uncomfortable, whether it's praying at work with someone or for someone, or maybe even if you feel the prompting to pray for somebody in the grocery store aisle. I mean, it could be anything. Perhaps it's speaking truth and love, which is not always easy, right? That is very courageous to speak truth, but to do so in love or serving someone who just simply needs. But also deserves Jesus's love in the sense that I believe everybody is so loved and so valued. And so the idea of getting to share the goodness of God, what a precious privilege that we have as believers. And so thinking about. How do we identify, some different things in our lives as far as helping us with, momentum and motivation for continuous self-growth? I just think about identifying, where you're clinging to comfort. So where are you clinging to comfort? Ask yourself that, thinking about that, processing through that with your, your C3 time this week, your change chaser challenge. Maybe it's a job, maybe it's a habit, or maybe it's even. A relationship. And then also I would love to challenge you to have the courage to ask God as this. Additionally, I would love to just encourage you to take one brave step this week. And so by that, what I mean is that I don't think that courage doesn't always mean that, yo, we gotta get out there and take off running 90 to nothing, doing 50 million, 11,000 things that. Y'all. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to measure what you do in a big, huge, like style of a huge leap, right? It often starts with just small, faithful steps and faithful choices. And so friends, as we're gonna kind of close out, I'm gonna put the shut to the up here in just a moment. I just kind of wanna say that I do realize that comfort feels safe. But y'all courage is what changes the world. So friends, I'm just gonna hit you with that truth. And I say it with nothing but love in my heart is that comfort feels safe. But courage changes the world when we are willing to choose courage over comfort and y'all, it gives us the opportunity. To step up and step into growth and purpose and the life that I truly believe that God so sweetly design for you and for me, and for us to go and live. Isn't that awesome? So I wanna encourage you, will you please choose courage over comfort this week so that we may step in to God's goodness and his destiny and his sweet, sweet, sweet, divine assignments that he's got just for us. All right, friends. Thanks so much for joining me on today's episode. I do hope that you've been encouraged to be intentional in your own life, to choose courage over comfort. Remember, change never happens in your comfort zone. So with that said, let's keep chasing change and living with purpose. Goodbye sweet friends.