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Happy New Month.
I feel like I blinked and fall is upon us. With the official start of fall only around the corner, I feel a pull to do something different. I think every season requires some sort of change, a type of adaptation, if you will: from the food we eat, to how we dress, to how we drive even.
Is this new season inspiring a change?
Change requires you to be resolute in shutting the door on yesterday and everything with it. But change is difficult for some people because it feels like you’re losing more than you’re gaining. I think most of my life has felt like that. But whether it’s true or not, God requires a level of trust and belief that what is ahead is better than what is behind. I’ve also come to realize that it’s not always a shared belief. You must believe this for yourself, otherwise you’ll always be strolling at someone else’s pace.
Not too long ago, I watched a movie about a pastor who counseled a younger pastor against marrying the woman he was engaged to because she wasn’t who she appeared to be. And I think one of the many things that I gleaned from it is to be ready to change, to let go, to push forward no matter what. When the prophet Samuel mourned King Saul, even God reprimanded the prophet, asking why he was grieving someone from whom He’d moved on (1Samuel 16:1).
I can sit here and number all my disappointments and losses, but the season has changed. It’s time for something new, and behold, new things that are on the horizon. Change is necessary for growth, otherwise, you’re stuck doing the same thing, circling the same mountain, and nursing the same comforts (or hurt).
Change causes you to expand, and to experience discomfort as you are discovering capacity that you didn’t know you had. And you learn to adapt, to soar above it, and allow it to propel you in new and glorious ways. It changes you. You become a person that you were not expecting, but that you needed. As you release yourself from cares, annoyances, and anchors holding you down, you’re free to walk into your new season unencumbered and unfettered by people, places, or things that can’t share or appreciate these changes with you. But that’s ok. Life around us, especially since COVID, has tremendously changed. Everything around us is rapidly shifting. Those of us in Christ need to change – trust God more, and lean into our faith as never before. We will need it for the road ahead of us.
Presently, there are exciting celebrations on the horizon that I’m looking forward to. I’m excited because they are evidence of the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, and confirmation that no matter what life throws at us, God still arises as victorious. And as long as we stick beside Him, we will bask in that victory too.
In short, if God is calling you to change, lean into it. Give yourself over to it. It’s not a group project. It doesn’t require a thousand consults so that everyone approves. If God says yes, run, don’t walk. He really is faithful. And He will see you through to the end. Come what may.
