Recently I attended a church business meeting during which the topic of change was raised. Part of the discussion centred around the need for change; however, the postscript was, “Let’s not just change for the sake of change,” and I, like those around me, dutifully nodded in agreement.
Later, I began to think about that comment. Why is it that we think stagnation for stagnation’s sake is preferable to change for the sake of change? Why would we rather pay the fine for parking in a no parking zone rather than a speeding ticket? Scripturally there isn’t much evidence for our position and I would argue that the reverse is true.
Paul tells the Corinthians that for the believer in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come. And let us not make the same sorry mistake that is almost always made, the mistake of which the introduction to this blog complains. We are not reading history, we are reading prophecy. This verse is true for you every day, not only at some point in the past which allows you to pull out your bucket list and cross it off.
It is because the Lord’s mercies are new every morning that we are not destroyed. And, as I state in The Glory of Kings
From glory to glory we are being changed into the image of the Lord, or, to complicate things and to set up yet another posting, from glory to glory we are evolving into the image of the Lord. Our todays are to be a change into a form different than yesterday’s. Until change is fully accomplished there will be incomplete parts that we will have no clue as to their use. This doesn’t make them useless, just unaccomplished. Of Christ it says, …and after his change was complete he became the source of eternal salvation… Your completion will not come without change.
We have been warned that we are not to become stagnant creatures, yet another stinking weed in the Sargasso of the world, but we are urged to change. And that change happens when our minds are altered, are made different. With an altered mind we can see differently, hear differently, think differently, even move differently.
The book of Chronicles speaks of the Sons of Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what should be done. I’ve heard a number of sermons speak about how such people are needed. What we don’t realize is that they are already among us…and getting kicked out of church by the same people who say we need them. They are the people advocating changes that we don’t see as necessary or desired. And of course we don’t, because if we did we wouldn’t need these people, because we would be one of them.
But if we learn to more easily accept change, even sometimes by changing only for change’s sake, then when the need for change comes the implementation will be a lot smoother. So next time I won’t just be nodding my head, ’cause I’m already changin’.