Comfort

I heard the phrase "getting out of your comfort zone" a lot when I was a teenager.  I remember people talking about it often in conjunction with following Christ and not allowing your current situation from keeping you from doing something drastically different.  It took me some time to "get out of my comfort zone" but I have on many occasions.  But this week, I was amazed at how quickly you can develop a "comfort zone."

Let's be honest, living in Korea is not like living in Wake Forest, NC.  I am surrounded by people who speak a language that I can not understand.  I do not understand anything said to me and I don't understand any signs that surround me(well the subway has English so I understand those).  The culture is different with a different set of expectations and ways of doing things.  I am most assuredly an "alien" as I am reminded often when I am asked for my 'alien registration card' number (essentially like a social security number or a form of identification number).  I am not from here.  I do not understand most of what I encounter and hear on a daily basis.

I left a place where I loved my job and my living arrangements.  I left a place where I knew the name for pretty much all the food I saw or understood what it was when I asked.  I could speak with basically everyone I saw and understand all the signs that were around me.  Life might have had some trials over the last few years but I would say I was comfortable.  I was in my "comfort zone."  To get around on a daily basis, buy food, provide transportation, etc was easy.

A month ago, I drove to Atlanta with my parents and 3 suitcases and a bookbag.  I sat for an hour talking and crying as I told my parents I loved them and I walked through security at the international terminal at the Atlanta airport.  Then I boarded a flight.  I moved out of my "comfort zone" to Korea. I spent 10 days in Jeonju, South Korea for orientation.  I was on a college campus and surrounded by native English speakers.  Besides the food, I really didn't feel far out of my "comfort zone."  I was basically at a conference with nobody I knew but I quickly made friends and ate a lot of unfamiliar food.

Three weeks ago today, I arrived in Busan and everything was different!  You have to take your shoes off right at the door when you enter your apartment, you press 2 buttons to get hot water, the light for the bathroom is outside the bathroom, the keys look different, I don't have a car, I ride a bus daily, I cannot read any signs around me, most of the food at the grocery store looks different and doesn't have any English writing on it to help me understand what it might be, when at work, unless spoken to directly I have absolutely no clue what is being said besides the occasional reference to my name, on that first day, my biggest concern was that I knew where to get off at the bus the next morning because EVERY corner looked the same to me.  I couldn't distinguish one area of Busan from another.  I had no clue where I lived (still can't say it or write it in Korean) and I only knew I worked at Yangjeong Elementary but couldn't have told you where in Busan that was if my life depended on it.  Based on how "comfort zone" was described to me as a teenager, I would say that I was 100% out of my comfort zone.

Then I went to work for 3 days in a row.  The third day I wasn't panicking that I would miss my stop.  I  knew more about more shopping than the 1 grocery store just steps above my building.  I understood the subway and 3 different busses.  I knew what general area of Busan I was in and things began to look familiar.  I could distinguish the word Yangjeong from a whole bunch of Korean being spoken on the speaker for the bus.  I knew where Seomyeon was and that it had a lot of different shopping opportunities.

Then I went to work for 6 days straight.  I stopped watching every stop and began to listen to a book on my bus ride to work.  I chose different ways to go home and met up with people in Seomyeon for an evening.  I looked up directions on the computer and followed them to a church that takes about 45 minutes to get to (and did so without the directions right in front of me).  The area of the church was new and unfamiliar but I could see what the area looked like as that individual area of Busan and not as just another section of road that looked just like all the others.  I was able to distinguish it so much that a week later when I was back in that area, I immediately recognized it and knew what subway station I was at.  I could place where I was on a map of Busan just by looking at the buildings.

Today, I have been in Busan 22 days.  I have taken the bus to work 17 of those days.  Things are so familiar that today I almost feel asleep on the way to work and heard the Yangjeong announcement the stop just before mine to know it was time to get off the bus.  I know where to go shopping for groceries and I feel confident exploring new areas.  I still don't know everything about this place and still get turn around and lost for a while when I am going to a knew place.  I still cannot say or write my address down but I know what it is near and where it is in Busan.  I am familiar with my surroundings to the point where they feel comfortable.  So the question is, am I still out of my comfort zone?  I think I am out of my comfort zone that I had in Wake Forest, but that I am building a new comfort zone here.  I am learning what is around me and slowly take time to expand that circle of knowledge around me or to try new foods or a new activity.  But I will say that I do have a "comfort zone" in Busan already.  In a mere 3 weeks!

As a teenager I was told that "getting out of your comfort zone" meant to do something that was out of what was comfortable to you or to go outside of what was normal for you.  But I always felt like people  that used that phrase meant for it to be something you do to share the Gospel and that it wasn't necessarily a one time thing.  More of a change of lifestyle.

In my teenage mind, moving overseas would 100% be "getting out of your comfort zone" and nothing that at that time in my life had I ever considered or desired to do.  To me moving overseas was so far beyond my comfort zone that I didn't even consider that as I thought about ways that I could get out of my "comfort zone" for Christ.  Now that I have moved overseas twice, I laugh and stand amazed at my God because if I knew as a teenager that I would move overseas I wouldn't have believed and/or would have been paralyzed by fear.  God does reveal just what we need to know when we need to know it.

In the middle of this new experience of moving to Busan, I'm rethinking the phrase "get out of your comfort zone."  It is more to "focus your life on Christ and expanding His kingdom and not on your own comfort."  It's more to not let your fear paralyze you but to trust in God and to follow his leading, no matter where in the world that might be.  It might be South Korea like it currently is for me or maybe its to talk with that person that you walk past every week at the store or maybe its have a conversation with someone who lives a lifestyle drastically different than you.  It's about allowing God to lead and following.  It's about trust God for your comfort and not your surroundings.  Well...at least that is what it seems like to me right now....