What Happened to My Comfort Zone

This article was published in the Southeast Outlook on September 10.

In early 2008, I left my corporate job to become the director of Mulberry International. Mulberry is a Christian ministry working with at-risk children in Ukraine. Our ministries reach out to street children, place orphans in Ukrainian Christian foster homes and minister to abandoned babies in local hospitals. And all of this takes place seven times zones away with a staff that doesn’t speak English. Speaking a foreign tongue has never been my gift.

This was a big change from my financial management role in a subsidiary of a multinational, German company. I went from managing a budget of 150 million dollars to fund-raising a budget of 200 thousand dollars. Before making the change, I think I convinced everyone in the company that I had completely lost my mind. First, I announced that I would only be working four days a week. While there never was a formal response, I did hear my boss make the comment, “Who ever heard of a part-time CFO?” I think I sealed my status as out-in-left-field when I told him that I would be in Ukraine in August of 2007. He asked me about the specific dates and I replied, “August.” I would be there the whole month. Shortly after my return I gave notice that I would be taking early retirement.

Several friends have commented on how far out of my comfort zone I’ve gone. I feel guilty whenever I hear that. The “comfort zone” that I was in wasn’t really all that comfortable. I was working harder and harder but never feeling like I accomplished anything meaningful. I had to be careful not to say this around my employer, but I kept coming back to the idea that this was all going to burn up one day. The unending cycle of monthly updates to one year plans, quarterly updates to three year plans and annual updates to eight year plans somehow all felt kind of hollow. My comfort zone just wasn’t comfortable. There had to be something better.

So instead of thinking of myself as outside my comfort zone, I may have finally found it. Jesus told us that His yoke was easy and His burden was light. In that case, following Him should put be the most comfortable zone we can find. He also said that He calls us to a narrow road that not many will follow. That casts doubts on the zone that the world sees as comfortable. It sounds like we can’t expect to find our comfort zone until we figure out the zone He has chosen for us.

Now I oversee Mulberry’s ministries. We have translators to handle the language. Cultural and the legal issues are something else. Seventy years of Communism created a country without a moral compass and with no concept of the “rule of law.”

I spend a good portion of my days writing. I write newsletters, thank you notes, ministry updates and cold contact letters. I’ve even tried blogging, but I haven’t quite got the hang of that. For someone who spent his career working in spreadsheets, WORD is like tackling a foreign language.

I am also learning to ask people for money. That has been a huge adjustment. I used to prepare a cost/benefit or a payback analysis when we needed business funds. Now, I find myself boldly asking for donations and explaining that the return will be realized in eternity.

I still wake up at odd hours of the night wrestling with issues that don’t seem to have a solution. I still spend hours poring over reports looking for potential improvements. And there are still deadlines set by someone else that control my schedule. But, I get the privilege of watching God at work everyday. And, when I remember to get out of the way, He does some pretty spectacular things.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more comfortable.