Unwelcomed Change

Is any change really welcomed? I received a small sum of money in the mail the other day...for clean living. That was a welcomed change to my money flow. However, how often does that happen? Being at a daily job can bring some sense of stability that usually does not include much change if any. People--change. Relationships--change, for better or worse given to marriage or not. Life changes from day to day as we age and our health is challenged. I was speaking with my son-in-law just last night who says he's a scientist. He works in a warehouse, but perhaps thinks like a scientist. hmm. He is intelligent. I drive a school bus for the public school system, and having driven regular and special ed, experience change every day, sometimes welcomed and sometimes un. However, change is the nature of the beast we call life. Our past is not as far away as our accumulation of days behind (although it is), it is as close as one minute ago, one hour, one day. Sometimes that is where unwelcomed change meets us. We get so used to do something (life) our way, that we expect God to not intervene or ask, or expect us to...you guessed it--change. Why change? Can it be good? The change I've experienced has been bad for the most part. I mean, my life was going fine...until change happened, and I was not expecting it, so it was unwelcomed. Understandable, right?

What if you could not perhaps anticipate change (although you could to a degree), but schedule an expectation of change? What would that look like? What would it include? How do I do that. How long will it take? All good questions.

What would it look like?

A plan. It would look like YOU--making the decision to work to formulate a plan. What would the plan involve?

It would involve discipline.

It would involve humility.

It would involve acknowledging sin in your life.

It would involve repentance to One...greater and mightier than you, your boss, your spouse, your religious leader or the world.

It would include time for future events, and patience for the plan to be formulated and take shape and be "eventually" realized...even if you write the vision to make it plain--so another may run with it. The change you desire may be you writing the vision and that's it, or it may go beyond that to seeing a welcomed change.

Next: What would it include?

It would necessarily include YOU, but more than just you. Invariably, change almost always includes others in your life and those you associate with. It may include letting go of relationships, or restructuring or reconnecting with relationships. It would include taking responsibility for consequences--good and bad, and at times giving yourself permission to fail, while not letting that become a habit. While it would include all these things, there is more that sometimes is not readily foreseeable.

Now: How do I do that?

You begin. You sit down, give yourself permission to take time...make time to change...to repent...to hear and see God's plan, vision and change for YOU. After all, God created you and knows the plans He has for you which are good plans. You connect with others who are doing that!! People who love God more than themselves. People who love truth and truly love. Give yourself to love and be loved, to repent and to call others to repentance, to pray for other and for yourself, to--change, to become, to Be-Made into the image of His dear Son...Jesus, the Christ.

How long will it take?

Great question!! It will take TIME, so give yourself permission to cause and to let it happen--over TIME. Remember some never saw the promises of God, but having faith, they continued and were found faithful and sought a better way. Is that what you want? It may seem unwelcomed circumstances, but with a welcomed end result...to stand before The King of all and to hear...well done, good and faithful servant, because your hope was in Him and allowed yourself repentance, humility, being made, and time, and without boasting, cry out---it is because of Jesus--the author and perfector of your faith. When you hear (faith) it is good. When you see (repent) it is better and more fulfilling.

Are you reading to welcome the unwelcomed--change?

Love is the answer, repentance is the call and forgiveness is the completion. But it takes all three...