Living Out Of Our Comfort Zone

This is something I wrote quite a few years back...it popped up in my facebook timeline feed. I read it and was wowed by my own writing and words! So I thought it was worth sharing again.

My cowgirl thoughts for today are on living out of our comfort zone. When I was little my aunt married a real life cowboy who lived out in Colorado. As a small child we went on a vacation to visit them. Part of the time they spent down in a canyon and part of the time they would spend up on the Mountain.

On these vacations my favorite time was spent on the mountain with the cowboys. I can remember our first trip up the mountain to the cabin we would stay in like it was yesterday. We got out and it was a small cabin with a corral outside. The cabin had an upstairs that was 2 rooms divided by a curtain, cowboys slept on one side of the curtain and we slept on the other side. The cabin had no electricity or running water.

I remember when my dad finally asked my aunt, “Where is the bathroom?”

She informed us it was outside and then proceeded to take us over a little bridge that had a small stream running under it then down a little path to a small building. This small building was a real life outhouse! My dad’s biggest concern was that one of us kids would have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I personally think my dad was just scared that he might run into a bear or something while he was out using it.

We usually spent a couple days up on the mountain and my dad would get to ride with the cowboys as they would gather cattle. It was very real to us that we were living out of our comfort zone. I felt like a cowgirl everyday we were up on the mountain. This is where my cowgirl dreams started and have stirred in me ever since.

I believe that sometimes God takes us out of our comfort zones. Sometimes He is going to put us in places where we don’t have electricity, running water, or we may just have to use an old outhouse. These are the times where God stretches us into the unknown and teaches us new things. It may not be easy and there will be adjustments but there is also beauty in the whole process.

Looking back on our trips up the mountain, we never tell stories of having to go without electricity or using the outhouse…well, we may joke about the outhouse a little. But those aren’t the stories we focus on. My dad would tell you of the great adventures on horseback gathering cattle and riding through the aspen trees. He would tell you about the grandeur of the mountain scenery and the great adventure of being a cowboy for a couple days. I would tell you about picking wild flowers, watching the horses in the corral, watching my aunt and mama cook on an old stove in the cabin. Also, I would tell you of the stories I heard from the cowboys like how one cowboy cut off a bear’s ear.

Our stories don’t tell of our displacement or being out of our comfort zone, they tell of the adventure. God constantly wants to take us out of our comfort zones, not to be uncomfortable but for an adventure. We may be using an outhouse, but we are using it on the top of the grandeur of a mountain!

We fight these adventures sometimes, but we need to learn to have faith enough to follow where God leads…His plan is greater than we can imagine and He just might take us on the greatest adventure of our lives! Jeremiah 29:11.


Happy Trails,
Hannah Gabriel