The New Under Ground Church-THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD: Embracing Changes

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Embracing Changes

Posted on April 18, 2015by nhiemstra

All of us must accept and deal with changes in our lives. When I interviewed for Comcast they asked me two things: how I handled close supervision . . . and, if I was able to adapt to change. Because as I learned, Comcast loves to make changes (some good, some not so good), and we needed to be able to adapt to those changes. As one of my favorite Mangers used to say, “It is what it is.” We may not like some of the changes, but we had to live with them.

All of us grow older; we grow from Kindergarten and move to first grade, on up into college for some. Some get married, and some married couples have children. And those children grow older and have children of their own. We change jobs and we change attitudes. Our weight changes and the color of our hair changes (some more often than others). Change, change, change . . .

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

Even Tevye understood changes come far too quickly:

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older
When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday
When they were small?

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as they gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset

As believers we experience changes:

All of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold in the Word of God as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit (II Corinthians 3:18)

Most of us recognize that change is a process, and sometimes that process is an ugly one. So, we struggle and wrestle against the changes. As Paul explained, as we follow our Lord, we should be changing from glory-to-glory! And I believe that we need to embrace those changes. But, in all fairness I need to warn you, those changes are going to look worsebefore they look better!

Oh sure, we would prefer to be able to “snap” our fingers and make those changes take affect immediately, but personally, that has never worked for me. But here’s the thing, while I was pondering this topic, I felt the Spirit of God saying, “Don’t stop the process when things start to look ugly. Don’t stop what I am doing in your life.”

That’s the point! As we are moving from Glory-To-Glory, we need to partner with our Lord to work out the changes He intends to form in our lives. We need to continue our surrender to Him and His work.

I believe that if we continue to press in and allow those changes to mold and shape us, we will come out on the other side with a new attitude of gratefulness; a new perspective; a new effectiveness as we minister and as we meet the needs of our families and those we work with.

These changes will never stop as long as we are still living on this side of eternity. We need to embrace His work in our lives. No, it may not be fun and joyous all the time, but it is well worth the patience and our determination.

Ooh! Actually, I take that back! Like Paul, we can learn to be “content in whateversituation [we are] in.” We can “know how to live joyfully in any circumstance. No matter what the situation,” We can “learn the secret of how to live when [we are] full or when [we are] hungry, when [we] have too much or when I have too little. [We} can do everything[and anything] through Christ who strengthens me.

Nickolas

(I send out messages like this each morning in emails, and if you are interested in receiving them, send me your email address and I will add you to the list: Mail List)