I hate change. And I think i’ve only heard from one person who said “Oh I love change.” My thoughts…you’re nuts or lying.
Today I participated in a meeting that centered around change. Lucky for me the discussion was in my favor. Unlucky for others…not what they were thinking. But then I came home to more change…a “you know, in the future” type of change. My mind started reeling. “How could you do this…life was just settling down…” And I fixed dinner with my mind running circles, trying to plan, trying to anticipate the future….
But then the thought came to me…why is ‘change’ seen as bad? Why do we react so vehemently to even the thought of change? A voice talked to me. Because something is affecting ME. Because MY plans are being changed. And, in our Christian thinking…because God is changing what I thought was secure.
That last one hurt. I cannot count how many times I have heard “Change is good.” Heavens knows I myself have said it. But if change is so good, why does it hurt. I thought I had life planned out. Now this change has come and robbed me of my sense of control. Oh wait…there it is. The c-word. Control. Now I was getting somewhere. The Bible talks of seasons a lot. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3 “There is a time for everything….” Psalms 104:19 “He appointed the moon for seasons…” Psalms 1:3 “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season….” Galatians 6:9 “And let us knot be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Acts 1:7 “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Daniel 2:21 “And he changeth the times and the seasons; he remotely kings, and setteth up kings….”
So it is clear that seasons i.e. change is something that is a constant for us. God, however does not change. In a beautiful dichotomy, to oppose the fact that, in our lives, change is constant, God Himself. HE. IS. CONSTANT. He is the opposite of change. Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Malachi 3:6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
That means that when I’m fighting this change in my life….I am fighting that God knows the end from the beginning, and that this direction that I’m now being led is something He already knows and that HE HAS DIRECTED/ALLOWED. Redirect /Remind yourself about the misstatement “God is Good.” This may not feel good…but God is constant. He can see you. He can hear you. He knows your questions. He is not afraid of your (or my) breath-catching, mind racing question of “What if?” But He does want us to go back to our Bibles and remember WHO He is, that He is LOVE, and that He is beside us even when we can’t see or feel Him. Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
And one of my personal favorite verses, I found in my teen years which were fraught with emotions.
“From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Psalms 61:2
When the changing waves of life buffet us to the point we feel we are drowning, grab on to the Rock that is unmovable and constant and may we cling to HIM with every last bit of strength. He will see us through. He is our constant in the midst of our change.
