change

Change is a very strange and organic thing.  Everyone of us is changing everyday.  The first day you were born is the first day you started to change and eventually die.  We are all getting older, but also wiser and smarter hopefully.  If you think about it, there are elements of change that we can control and things we cannot.  When sickness strikes you or your family that is a change.  I just wrote in my book a few weeks ago that when I got sick there were foods I couldn’t eat, vacations I couldn’t go on and just things I couldn’t do.  The problem with all the change in my life is that I was not ready for it.  I had not changed enough in my relationship with Jesus to be ready for the physical storm i was about to endure.  I always find it interesting that the universal term for a relationship with Jesus is a “walk” with him.  I can “stand for him”, but my relationship with him is known as a walk.  Just the word “walk” to me indicates a moving from one place to another.  Not by anyone elses standards, but if my “change” with Christ has not matured to a place to be ready for the crappy changes that are guarenteed to happen to me, I will not be ready for the pain that negative change can bring.  Think of it this way; we have opportunities to grow, change and become a better person everyday.  The “changes” in our lives that are painful (physical illness, family issues, mental stresses) will test or show how much true GOOD change has happened in us.  So here are some things to take away from this; if you are in the middle of “crappy change” in your life and feel like you are losing the battle, then know that all that’s happening is a showing of the changes you need to make in your life that you can control.  It is always easier to look at the pain of a situation instead of thinking about who you want to be on the other side of it.  The other thing to remember is that without a test of where we are in life then can we truely say we are growing or changing into who God wants us to be?   We need to look at pain and the crap of life as a test and meet it head on with an expectation that we are going to get through it or learn something valuable about ourselves that needs “change.”  I want to develop this a bit more in the coming days so stay tuned…