The Three Chairs

To close out 2025, I wanted to share a popular Christian allegory used in sermons, youth groups, and leadership teachings to illustrate spiritual commitment and the necessity of discomfort for growth.  A business colleague of mine mentioned this to me a couple weeks ago.  This is the outline provided by Grok on X.  But I also wanted to take this same concept and put a personal finance and business spin on it.  I did 2 podcasts - the first for personal finance and the second for business development.  Even if you aren’t a particularly religious person or are a Christian, I hope you stick around to take in the premise and find ways to apply this to your own life for 2026.  You can check out the two podcasts here.  It has been our pleasure to serve you in 2025.  We are looking forward to a prosperous and impactful year.  Can’t wait to do it with you!!  Until we meet, keep working on the change.  - StudioM

1. Chair #1 – The Big, comfortable armchair (often with cushions, sometimes even a recliner)
   This represents the comfortable Christian or the cultural/nominal believer.
   They believe in God, might go to church occasionally, but their faith costs them nothing. Their life revolves around comfort, success, security, and pleasure. Jesus is in their life, but He's not the center — He's just "one of the things."
   They are saved (or think they are), but they bear little to no fruit. This chair is crowded — most people sit here.

2. Chair #2 – Slightly smaller, less comfortable wooden chair
   This represents the committed believer.
   They’ve moved Jesus from the periphery to the center of their life. They serve in church, tithe, read their Bible, try to live morally. But… they still hold onto control. Their life is "Jesus + my plans, my comfort, reputation, etc."
   They grow, but only to a point. When real sacrifice or suffering comes, they often pull back. This chair has some people, but not many.

3. Chair #3 – A small, hard, uncomfortable stool (sometimes just a little wooden box or even a crate)
   This represents the fully surrendered disciple.
   The person in this chair has said, "Lord, anything, anywhere, at any cost." Their comfort, dreams, reputation, finances, future — everything is on the altar. Jesus is not just Savior — He is Lord of every area.
   This chair is painful to sit in. It hurts your tailbone. Your legs go numb. But this is where true spiritual power, fruit, and intimacy with God are found.
   Very few people choose this chair… but history’s greatest saints and world-changers all sat here.

"The problem with Chair #1 is that you can sit there forever and never know you're lost.
The problem with Chair #2 is that you grow, but only so far.
The only place where 100% of God's will can flow through 100% of your life… is Chair #3.
And Chair #3 is terribly uncomfortable.
But it is only in the discomfort that we are changed."