Anyone who has lived long enough knows that change is inevitable. Nothing stays the same. In fact, God built change into creation by giving us the seasons to enjoy. As we make our way through Autumn, we are beginning to experience the crisp cool mornings and colouring foliage on the trees. But also, we experience change through the various seasons of our life. Kristi and I are facing this with our second daughter having commenced university and our oldest preparing for marriage. Our household is changing and will never be the same. For many, change can be very fearful and disconcerting. There is a natural tendency to keep things as they are where there is comfort in familiarity. But I wonder if our great resistance to change is not so much the fear of change but the fear of being changed.
We see this with the people of Israel wandering through the wilderness. With a strong-arm God rescued them from 400 years of bondage and oppression in Egypt but when the path forward required faith in God instead of fear they cried out, “Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt” (Num 14:3). Even though slavery was hard it was predictable. The “wilderness” of change felt more dangerous than the bondage of the past because the wilderness was a place of transformation. It was a place to learn dependence upon God and they found that difficult, as do we.
As Christians we are people who must embrace change since change is central to who we are. It is true that when we come to Christ, we come just as we are. But we must never stay just as we are. Salvation brings immediate change to one’s eternal destiny, but it also brings daily change to one’s own life to make us more like Christ (Rom 8:11; 1 John 3:2-3). While I enjoy the gifts of familiarity and daily rhythms, I am very aware that these are quite deficient in testing and stretching my faith to change me into Christ’s image.
Last week, we experienced one of those change opportunities as we began worshipping at St Andrews Christian College. We drove to a new location, parked in a new spot, sat in a new seat, read from a new screen and worshipped with new people. It was exciting to worship together with one voice, but it was also unfamiliar. Whether we face change collectively as a church or singly as individuals, remember that without change there is no conformity to Christ. There is no sanctification through the Spirit. There is no growing in faith. There is no meeting new people. And there is no growth of Christ’s kingdom. In a word, such a life for the Christian doesn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean it is easy.
I am so thankful that we can face this change together and support one another through it. It is good to be able to share our joys and our struggles but let us together not fear change nor fight it. Let us together take hold of the unchanging God, trusting in His unchanging Word, confident of our unchanging destiny, while we embrace and joyfully accept God’s means to achieve His ends to conform us to the image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Far from being despondent, I am excited to see what God will do in and through His church in the coming days and years ahead that would not have been achieved if He didn’t take us down the path of change.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
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