Can You Spare Some Change?

"Change is inevitable...growth is intentional"

We are in the midst of a season of change. The cool breeze of autumn is fast becoming the brisk chill of winter - not that anybody in Loretto today would be any the wiser - and bringing other changes with it. This has got me thinking about the nature of change, growth and taking risks. 

What is change? Four years ago, Obama got the country to rally around the promise of change without ever really going into what it entailed. Regardless of your political leaning, you cannot argue that this country has in fact changed greatly over the last 48 months.

It didn't take an election to create change, though. Whether we see it or not, change is all around us, all the time. Sometimes it seems for the worse - when a "friend" leaves, for example - but in the end, God knows what he is doing.

"The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you...and you will be changed into a different person" - 1 Samuel 10:6

I had never heard that verse before writing this. I did a quick search for the word "change" in the Bible and I don't even think the page had finished loading before that verse jumped out at me. 

It's worth remembering here the story of Samuel - dedicated to God before his birth, he was serving under the priest Eli and was asleep in the temple one night when he heard a voice calling out to him. He (justifiably) assumed it was Eli and went running to his master who, not too happy about being woken up, told Samuel he had not called him. The whole incident repeated itself several times before finally Eli realized it was the Lord calling Samuel. Samuel was told to reply "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3:9). Isn't that beautiful? Samuel wasn't told to say "Give me a sign, Lord" or some complex invocation...he just said "Speak.Tell me what you want of me and I will do it. I will listen."

Samuel did in fact go on to be "changed into a different person" as promised. 

All throughout the Bible there are stories of change. One of the most famous is that of Saul/Paul. In a single bright flash he went from one of the most prolific persecutors of Christians to one of our most beloved saints. 

"But Nick," you might say, "what about the bad changes? Not all change is for the best, you know!" Well, aren't you a little impatient! I was just getting there! 

For an example of a (seemingly) bad change, let's turn to Genesis. Man was created in the "image and likeness of God" yet was changed by original sin. We received ramifications so grave, every human since has been born with them - tendency to sin, concupiscence, the whole deal. I am not going to argue that this was a "good" change - everything about sin is bad and damning. What I will say, though, is that God turned even the worst change into good by sending the Messiah. Man changed for the worse, and God used that change to work the greatest act of mercy in all of history. 

So...this is a time of change. For many of us, we are still figuring out how many of these are good. I won't promise you every change is good. Your best friend becoming somebody you thought you knew and leaving your life, or telling you you don't care, is hard to think of as a good change. But with God, all things are turned to good.

God turns death into life, sin into redemption, and despair into hope. "How much more" (Romans 5) then will God turn all the "bad" changes in your life into good. Into growth. 

We cannot avoid change, but we can trust that God will "make all things new" (Revelation 21) and work for our good. We can consciously seek the message God is sending us in all changes.

Change is inevitable...growth is intentional