The Comfortable Words: A 10-Day Digital Devotional

The Comfortable Words is a 10-day digital devotional resource for anyone who feels like sometimes the darkness is winning.

Feelings and emotions are the punching bags of theology, oft-maligned in the church world. And it’s not without validity: feelings aren’t necessarily an adequate indicator of truth, our feelings can lie to us, feelings are not facts. Feelings may not be facts, but that doesn’t mean they are worthless. That doesn’t mean we can think ourselves out of the feelings of pain, of grief, of injustice. It doesn’t mean we don’t hurt with people. It doesn’t mean we don’t doubt every pencil mark of scripture’s truth and authority. It doesn’t mean we don’t wonder if we’re participating in empty ritual, going through the motions of something that’s a myth.

But here is what I know: I know grief is never shushed in scripture (or when it is, it’s soundly rebuked). I know Jesus was angry. I know pain is never told to “just get over it.” I know one of the largest books of the Bible is essentially the diary of a depressed doubter who made some of the biggest mistakes there are to make. I know Job yelled at God. I know when He was alone in the desert, Jesus told scripture to Himself. I know this book is full of those who cried out, called out, poured lament, and were called beloved. I know we can beat on His chest.

They aren’t meant to make you comfortable in the modern sense of the word. They are meant to offer comfort. Carl Sagan said, “If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” He wasn’t necessarily talking about scripture, but at some point, a test is in order: are these words as powerful as they claim to be, or not?

This is what we’ll do together in The Comfortable Words. We’ll examine ten verses, including the four that make up the original Comfortable Words section of the liturgy. Do they hold up? Can they hold you up? Are they worthy of belief or do they belong in the greeting card aisle? These verses offer two different kinds of comfort: comfort in how the Lord forgives us, and comfort for our sorrows. And in the end, aren’t they asking the same question: am I loved by God, no matter what? That’s what we'll seek to answer in these pages.

When you purchase The Comfortable Words, you'll receive a link to download the PDF version of The Comfortable Words with 10 days of readings and devotionals. 

In a sense, I’m just asking you to join me as I try to work out my own faith here. I want it to be true. I yearn for this not to be a big cosmic joke. I need for these words to be the unquestionable authority, because, to paraphrase Simon Peter, where else am I supposed to go? I need to see if this is just a way to sell a lie, or if these are hard-earned truths.

What gives you comfort doesn’t always make you comfortable.