Change

God's been teaching me about change lately.  Why do we resist change?  Is it fear?  Feeling out of control?  Loss of the familiar?  But in reality, at the core of our being, we crave change.  We love new things--new furniture, new clothing, a new hairdo, a new start.  At least we love it--as long as we can control it.  We love new furniture if we get to pick it out and arrange it the way we want it.  We love new clothing if it's stylish and fits our frame just right.  We love a new hairdo if it looks just like the photo we've taken to our hairdresser.  And we love a new start if it's where we want it and involves a pay raise.

But if the change is bigger than us, we balk, resist, and might even throw a tantrum.  We know we're losing control.  But fear, control and familiarity keep us from life.  Change proves there is life.

Think about it.  Anywhere there's life, there's change.  Look at your baby photo.  Have you changed?  Yes!  Because you're still alive.  A seed changes into a plant which changes into flowers.  There's life.  God's created our world to change.  Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that "to everything there is a season."  Everything is constantly changing.  If it doesn't change, it's dead.  Pure and simple.  If people quit changing, they've died.  If a church quits changing, it's because people have wrapped familiarity around themselves until there's death in it.

If God's cut it away (and He does according to John 15), why do we keep picking it back up?  It's dead!  We're to forget what lies behind--it's over, cut away, dead.  (Did you know Jesus is talking about Himself in vs. 2?  I'd never seen that until Terry Maxwell pointed it out in Sunday School.  Even JESUS had dead things cut away from Him!!  Not sin--but things that were unnecessary dead weight.)

God encompasses creativity and change...and yet He is our constant.  He's created seasons to keep us in constant motion and moving forward.  He's created change so that we run to Him--our constant.  And if we trusted Him, we'd embrace change.

Amy told me recently that as she took photos for her church's directory, that every woman over 50 complained about their size or their wrinkles.  Our looks change.  But it's a sign of LIFE!!  And I took her directive to heart--to embrace who I am even with all of these changes.  

We need to follow the life.  And life comes with change.