Growth is painful. Change is painful.
But nothing is as painful as a moment of potential greatness, missed for whatever reason. Time touches eternity every day. Being somewhere you don't belong feels like you are taking a shower with your socks on. You are getting wet but something doesn't feel right. The opposite of this is living in the secret place of the most high God and moving in obedience to His voice.
Work and love are the two essential elements of our adult years. Are you where you are meant to be in both of these areas? A man named Dag Hammarskjold once said: “The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. Only he who listens can speak.”
Many people would move boldly if they were certain they could hear God's voice telling them to do so. What if it's the other way round? What if you need to pay the price to be where you are supposed to be so that you are walking in step with Him?
Proximity is power. The closer you are to where He is, the more clearly you will hear His voice.
Of course sometimes the real journey is to go into the cocoon right in the midst of an existing circumstance you wish would change. You can't leave on the outside but you can enter a transformational process on the inside. If that is where God is calling you, you'll find His voice in the cocoon.
Don't go outside. Go inside. In fact, if you don't go within you will go without.