Some Thoughts/Tweets about Change

 10.9.21

Every day, changes ... most incrementally small, small enough to never notice, but added up, over time, change is evident. How I think, feel, walk, talk, sleep and eat. My "religion," too. Some elements remain, but most have changed, some discarded. I'm 77.

Change is life - from Adam and Eve to you and me - nothing remains static, everything evolves. Frightening to some people, disturbing to most, resisted by nearly everyone. We love stability, but stability is hell. Heaven is a process of constant discovery, renewal, with light.

Thinking about my career, reviewing the years, I changed things in the life of the church, and most always it was painful. Religion strives for stability. "I'd rather take my church to my grave than see it change," said one. "Besides, I'm too old to change."

I've always been a reader - from The Hardy Boys, to the Weekly Reader; from comics to biographies; history, poetry, mystery and espionage. My imagination full of adventure, courage, danger, and hope. I'd like to think that my soul remains supple in the hands of time and God.

Religion has mostly been my friend. Though for me as a career-minster, it's been an enemy. For me, religion has provided the means of thought, contemplation, review and revision. For others, it's a bulwark that cannot be moved; it's a hidey place; a blankie; an idol.

For religion to remain stable, it has to have idols - wood and iron, stone and gold. Golden Calves rather than the Mountain God of Cloud and Fire. What better idol than skin color; "my skin, my race, my way of life, my people, superior - all by God's UNCHANGING decree."

Human Instinct

It is our instinct to want comfort without a commitment to Christ ... to have peace of mind without compassion for others ... in other words, we want Christ for ourselves, and that, of course, never works. Christ denies these petitions of ours. To change, it takes a miracle, awareness and desire.

The awareness begins in a place like this, where we consider the whole counsel of God, not just the benefits we desire, but the blessings of God, which are always transformative.

Desire begins, like someone in AA, who's sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. We begin to desire something more than the self, and so begins a search.

Miracle is simply the love of God at work - the desire for the blessings of God, to see God's face, to have all of Christ, is a petition God honors, and God enters into the deep places of mind and heart, to begin a transformation.

Nothing quick, of course. For that would be mostly unprofitable for us. It took a long time for us to build our world without Christ; it'll take time to disassemble it and rebuild it with Christ. Every day, like a refurbishing of an old home, every nail pulled, every wall torn down, is one more step toward a new home. The dismantling is as important as the rebuilding.

Changing Our Minds

Stay the course, but be prepared for the unexpected discovery.

Years ago, the Christian Century magazine published a series of articles entitled, “How I Changed My Mind” – written by a variety of top-notch scholars, preachers and church leaders.

For all of them, those critical moments when new data entered the stream of thought, when the unexpected discovery could not be ignored – so, they changed their minds.

Emerson noted: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”

What’s “foolish consistency”? A refusal to let new data enter the stream of thought. A consistent disregard for the unexpected discovery – as if Columbus might have sailed into the new world and said, “Nope. Doesn’t exist! The world as I knew it last week is still the world as it is.”

Life is a quest … a constant journey … and God is constantly introducing new data into the stream of thought, and as we walk with Jesus, we will see things never seen before, or we’ll see what we saw thousand times before in a brand new light.

It takes courage, I think to change the mind, and some humility as well – to admit that our former take on things can go in a new direction. “I used to think thus and so, but now I see it differently.”

It’s good to change … do it slowly, do it carefully - keep the windows of your mind open to new data and the unexpected discovery.