Abundant Life Or Comfort

Abundant Life Or Comfort
 
For a long time, I’d visit the local zoo, and I’d think, “Why wouldn’t this lion want to be in a zoo?”
He has a nice big space they made look like his natural habitat, they feed him plenty, and he even gets to mate. No one is going to kill him, and his family will never starve. All his lion problems are solved. He’s a lucky lion.
Now I know better.
I know that any lion would prefer to take his chances on the Serengeti and be free, that is, be a true lion.
But why? What else could one want but food, shelter, and mates?
How about life, and life abundant? A lion who is not living free is not living.
But does abundant life need to come with danger and hardship?
Apparently.
Here’s the research on animals.
Here’s some specifically for lions. Here, and Here.
The Death of a Caged Spirit
Why would a creature choose hardship over comfort? Why risk starvation when abundance is guaranteed?
Because a lion that isn't hunting isn't really a lion at all. If he’s not working the social network of a chosen pride, he’s incomplete.
A zoo lion might technically be alive—heart beating, lungs breathing—but it's experiencing a kind of spiritual death. It's been robbed of its essential nature. The very DNA-level programming that makes a lion a lion is rendered meaningless in captivity.
That glorious mane? Useless when there are no lionesses to impress. Those powerful muscles? Wasted when there's nothing to chase. Those territorial instincts? Frustrated by unchanging boundaries.
The zoo offers safety at the cost of identity. Longevity at the expense of purpose. And sometimes, he doesn’t even get longevity, the stress of captivity draining his life at a more rapid pace.
The Human Zoo of Modern Life
We're not so different.
We've built our own human zoos—climate-controlled homes, DoorDash delivering our meals, Netflix supplying endless entertainment. We've eliminated countless hardships our ancestors faced daily (and I’m even glad about it!).
Yet rates of depression, anxiety, and meaninglessness continue to skyrocket. Why?
Because just like that lion, we weren't created for captivity—even self-imposed captivity.
We were designed for the hunt. For the struggle. For the challenge of becoming something greater through difficulty.
Safety Is Not the Ultimate Good
We've been conditioned to believe that the greatest good is the elimination of risk, the avoidance of pain, the guarantee of comfort.
But Christ never promised safety—He promised life. And not just existence, but abundant life (John 10:10).
Think about that. Jesus didn't say: "I have come that they might have comfort, and have it more predictably." He didn't say: "I have come that they might avoid all danger and live in perfect security."
No—He promised life in its fullest expression. Life with both its soaring joys and crushing sorrows. Life with risk and reward. Life with meaning forged through sacrifice.
Where True Joy Lives
True joy isn't found in the absence of difficulty—it's found in the presence of purpose.
The lion on the savanna, muscles burning as it sprints toward its prey, is experiencing something the zoo lion never will: the exhilaration of living precisely as it was designed to live.
The same is true for us. Our greatest moments of joy don't come from netflix binges or scrolling mindlessly through social media feeds. They come from pushing ourselves beyond what we thought possible. From creating something meaningful. From fighting for something larger than ourselves.
Think about the difference between starting your own business versus collecting a safe, predictable paycheck. The entrepreneur faces sleepless nights, financial uncertainty, and the constant possibility of failure. The traditional employee enjoys weekends off, regular income, and the security of benefits.
Yet how many people feel truly alive in their cubicles? How many find deep satisfaction in merely executing someone else's vision? The entrepreneur, despite shouldering enormous risk, experiences life at a level of intensity the paycheck-collector rarely knows. They're building something that matters to them. They're testing the limits of their capabilities. They're living as humans were designed to live—creating, conquering, and cultivating.
I am aware that I am way over-generalizing and that many find great fulfillment in the jobs working for a company or person they believe in, so don’t rule out the possibility. But I know too many people who have given up on any dream of creating something valuable that requires risking their livelihood and identity.
They settle. And the tell-tale is that they hate their job, live for weekends, vacations, and retirement. It doesn’t feel like the way we were created to live.
Not everyone should be an entrepreneur. But everyone must find their arena of meaningful struggle—that place where your unique gifts meet the world's deep needs. That's where purpose lives and joy flourishes.
From fully embracing our God-given design, whatever the cost.
Choose the Jungle
So we face a choice—a choice that defines not just how we live, but who we become:
Will we choose the zoo, with its promise of comfort and security?
Or will we choose the jungle, with its dangers, uncertainties, and the possibility of truly living as we were created to live?
The zoo lion may live longer. But the wild lion lives.
Choose the jungle. Choose purpose over comfort. Choose the struggle that makes you who you were meant to be.
Choose life—real, raw, difficult, glorious life.
Because a cage, no matter how gilded, is still a cage. And you were made for so much more.
I asked an A.I. program for 5 practical steps to move from "zoo" comfort to a more fulfilling "jungle" life:
5 Practical Steps to Embrace Jungle Living
1. Identify Your Cage
Take inventory of where you've chosen comfort over purpose. Look for signs like chronic boredom, living for weekends, or feeling that life is passing you by. What safety nets are actually holding you back? Which routines have become ruts? The first step toward the jungle is recognizing the bars of your current enclosure.
2. Rediscover Your Natural Instincts
What activities make you lose track of time? When do you feel most alive? These are clues to your essential nature - your equivalent of the lion's hunting instinct. Review your childhood dreams before practicality took over. Journal about moments when you felt most fulfilled and look for patterns. Your path to the jungle lies in reconnecting with these core drives.
3. Take Progressive Risk
The jungle doesn't require quitting your job tomorrow. Start with small, calculated risks that stretch your comfort zone. Commit to one meaningful risk each month - a difficult conversation, a creative project, or learning a challenging skill. Like building muscle, risk tolerance grows through consistent exercise. Each step builds confidence for larger leaps.
4. Find Your Pride
Lions aren't solitary creatures - they thrive in community. Identify people who are already living in their "jungle" and spend time with them. Distance yourself from those who reinforce cage thinking. Join communities centered around growth, purpose, and meaningful challenge rather than mere comfort or status.
5. Embrace Purposeful Hardship
Voluntarily choose difficulty that serves a greater purpose. This might mean fasting occasionally, taking cold showers, or committing to physical challenges - not for their own sake, but to build the mental toughness required for meaningful pursuits. When hardship serves purpose, it becomes a path to freedom rather than something to avoid.
Remember: The jungle isn't about recklessness—it's about embracing the full spectrum of life with purpose, even when that includes struggle. True freedom comes not from avoiding difficulty but from choosing meaningful challenges that align with how you were designed to live.
Bible Verses for Embracing "Jungle Living"

1. James 1:2-4 - "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." This verse directly addresses how challenges lead to growth and completeness.

2. Romans 5:3-5 - "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Speaks to the transformative power of difficulties in building character.

3. Hebrews 12:1-2 - "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Encourages us to shed comforts that hold us back from our true calling.

4. 2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Reminds us that fear shouldn't keep us in the "zoo" - we're equipped for more.

5. Matthew 16:25 - "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."The paradox that seeking safety above all actually costs us true life.

6. Ecclesiastes 11:4 - "Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." A warning against excessive caution that prevents us from meaningful action.

7. Isaiah 43:19 - "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." God often works through the "wilderness" experiences, not by keeping us in safety.

8. Philippians 3:13-14 - "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." The importance of moving forward with effort rather than resting in comfort.

9. Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Embracing the jungle requires faith beyond our natural desire for security.

10. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." Discipline and purposeful struggle for meaningful reward.

Have a great weekend!
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