Change

The month is almost over, and I’ve hardly had a chance to write about the things I’ve been learning. It has been hot, and there have been so many little things biting at my heels, that I woke up this morning only to realize that some of the leaves were beginning to fall. Whether we notice it or not, change is constant. Nothing stays in the same place very long. This can be difficult when you are looking for security or comfort. But an ever changing world oftentimes turns out to be more exhilarating than a place of security. It is just managing the change that we have to get a handle on.


Take a look at how fast our world is changing today. Knowledge is increasing exponentially. We are fast becoming aware of previously unknown people and how they live all over the world. Places we did not know existed a hundred years ago have been birthed unceremoniously into the telecommunications world. On a global scale that means our world is shrinking at the same time that is growing.

It seems that to keep up with this change we must be constantly learning, experimenting, challenging, failing and trying again. I think that challenge has been one which man has had to face from the beginning. However, some of the ingredients in today's challenges are different. What is more subtle and easier to misunderstand is that those ingredients, which are particular to our current situation, often contain elements that are the consequences of choices made by those who have gone before us.

Here are a few examples. Unlimited abortion is the consequence of promiscuity and rebellion in the ‘60s and ‘70s. A weakened-nearly-to-death, economy is a byproduct of unrestrained spending and borrowing, spending and borrowing in the ‘80s. What has been referred to by most as racial tension (actually racial hatred) has grown into ideological sectarianism on such a scale as to render our political system impotent. These jewels are the result of the “me first and me only” selfishness of the ‘90s.

In some ways it does not really matter, who is responsible for the big changes that are affecting our world negatively. We cannot go back and change things. What we can do, however, is commit ourselves to live outside the gates of mainline society. We must move forward, learning from our mistakes, dedicated to personal growth in our own hearts and lives. To do this requires that we must put aside guilt, embrace grace, and turn again to God for the direction we so desperately need. If we do not stop the raging forest fire of social decay and indifference to moral values, the consequences will eventually bring down our society. We may even face the loss of our nation and the freedom it has provided for us.

The changes we face today are like all the other changes man has faced in that they are really changes in man himself. Anyone who has been alive for longer than six years knows in their soul that the kind of personal changes I am speaking of only take place when we are touched in our hearts. We cannot make these changes by the power of our wills. We are unable to control our behavior without divine intervention. It takes the spirit of God moving in our cores in a way that only He can to ignite the flames of real change. To put it in a biblical way ‘what the law could not do, grace has completed’ (paraphrase)

That reality highlights the purpose of God in creation. From before all time, God intended to pay the price for our brokenness and to give us the key to the door of real freedom. That key is Jesus.

He voluntarily came here to earth, to live the perfect life and die the perfect death. His sole purpose for being a man was and still is to provide a Savior for a mankind out of control. Knowing our weakness, having fought and defeated our enemy, He came to fulfill the rules by substituting His life for ours. To fully understand that change, we have to live in the process of light overcoming darkness. We have to open the secret places, where darkness hides. By inviting Jesus into these places, His light triumphs over the darkness and sets us free. This kind of freedom is the kind that God lives in. It is a freedom to know and to do His will, which is perfect love. When we open ourselves like this to the spirit of God, He shows us the truth. Not just the factual truth, the truth of His unending grace and His ceaseless mercy. With the darkness of condemnation and guilt overcome, we can welcome without fear His presence and His person. This joining of God and man, Father and son, fulfills the plan of God in creation. It is the only type of change that will last. It is the only change that will set us free. And it is the only change that is unchangeable.