Embracing Change
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
— John Henry Newman
Change — to become different, to become something else.
Change.
When we hear this word spoken, many of us cringe. Our natural tendency is to gravitate to what is comfortable for us. We are creatures of habit. Our personal preference is sacred, and nobody — I said nobody — should ever mess with what is sacred in our lives. So we dig our feet in the ground and get ready to fight.
Does this sound familiar?
In the church, we have many sacred things — the good old songs, the volume high or low, the lights bright or dim, the order of service, a time limit on the service, and many more things that we don’t liked changed. We like what is familiar.
One of the things in a Christian’s life that will not change is God.
In Malachi 3:6a, it reads, “I the LORD do not change.”
But God’s intentions for His daughters and sons is to be constantly changing.
This blog is not about sanctification, but about how God doesn’t want us to contain Him to what we believe church or a worship service should be. He doesn’t want us to box Him in.
So many times I have heard, and even have thought it myself, “Remember the good old days!” Well here’s a verse that will be painful to us who like to live in the past and dig in our heels. Ecclesiastes 7:10 reads, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”
OUCH!!!!
John Henry Newman was on to something — “To live is to change.”
Life is change. You can’t escape it or dodge it.
In the church, we fight change. We like what is familiar and comfortable to us. Sometimes “this little light of mine” that Sunday school kids sing about is hidden, and we don’t let it shine.
We can no longer bury our heads in the sand. Souls are in the balance.
The country we live in has changed. In the beginning of our nation, the church and the American people shared similar morals. They both believed in an attitude of service (reminding you that good works will not get you into Heaven), they believed in strong family values, and many more individuals and families attended a worship service weekly.
In Macomb County, in which our church resides and many of us live, the latest poll shows that 83% of the population does not know the church.
So what are we to do?
CHANGE.
We must become the church.
This past week, I heard someone say, “Is the church a place you go to once a week, or is it your identity?” We must be those who are willing to become different. We must, like the first church, become missional. We must change and take the Gospel to the broken and the lost — we must take it to them in the streets, in the workplace, we must live among them and do life with them.
I believe in the core of all of us who have made Jesus our Lord, we have good intentions. But a lot of times, we want to have new influence without giving up our old ways. We want to reach new people without giving up our old methods. We want to become new people without giving up our old life. But sometimes, we have to embrace change because God wants to change us.
So I have been challenged to ask myself, am I holding on to things that I see as sacred just because they’re familiar? Am I running to those things that are holy or comfortable?
The change starts with me, and I know I have everything to make these pivotal adjustments — and so do you.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, it reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
So let’s roll up our sleeves, break out of our bubbles, and by the power of Holy Spirit and driven by our love and devotion to God, become those who accept change and become the world changers that our Heavenly Father intended us to be!
Running this race alongside you,
Pastor Dave