To "change or not to change?"

I have lived in Wollongong the majority of my life and the local place that I shop at has been the same for many years. So, when they decided to change the entrance and exit and remark the paths to get into the parking lots, I have been surprised how hard it has been for me to change.  It feels like every day I keep driving up the wrong lane and as a result disobey the arrows on the ground. I get stuck and can’t get to where I want to go, because the way I have gone for so long is imprinted in my brain and I can’t seem to retrain my brain to change. I find myself getting frustrated, thinking to myself, this is not logical, questioning why they changed this because I can’t see how it is better and then being a little head strong and doing it the old way anyway! This does go against my deep desire to be obedient and do the right thing, so each day as I drive up the wrong lane, against the arrows I think to myself ...wow, change is really hard !

Change is hard when you have been doing something for so long a particular way, your pathways in your brain are marked out very clearly and to retrain or make new pathways is a hard process. And that is even when you want to change!  When it comes to obeying the arrows at my local shopping spot, clearly I don’t want to change. So the theory of “28 times to change a habit” is not working for me yet.

But when it comes to something that really matters, it has reminded me how important it is to make sure we get the right foundational pathways in our brain to start with. One, because if we get it wrong, change is so much harder later on, and two, because if we get it right in the first place, it creates a firm foundation that helps us NOT to change and go with whatever new fad the world wants to try and convince us is right at the time.

In a shifting world of values, rules, behaviours and TRUTH, one can become very unbalanced very quickly without a firm, strong foundation which I believe is BEST when it is based on God’s truth and worldview. Even within Christendom today I have been disturbed by the shakiness of peoples’ interpretation of God’s TRUTH and the constant change in worldview that is in our face daily. As a parent and Christ follower I am struggling with the changing view of what is God’s TRUTH as I hear biblical scholars I have loved and respected now changing their view of God’s TRUTH.

I am someone who sees the value of CHANGE, having been an agent of change in my ministry field for many years, but I do believe when it comes to God’s TRUTH, it (HE) has never changed. How we deliver the message must always change, but His truth always was, always is and always will be TRUTH. It is firmly embedded as a foundation upon which I base my daily life,  yet I acknowledge I have changed and grown over the years, which I am hoping is maturity, as God teaches me more and more deeply who He is and who I am in HIM. 

But given how clearly stubborn I am when it comes to changing the way I drive into a parking lot, it has caused me to step back and make sure I am not being open to change that is simply a part of life and necessary or being sure of some changes that we must resist in order to live in a way that HONOURS God’s truth?

It begs the questions......

Q: When is change necessary and when is God’s TRUTH, as the foundation by which we make our daily decisions, the key to helping us navigate change?

                Q: What never changes and what is always changing and how do we know the difference?

I think someone much wiser than me has prayed that for some time now.  American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) penned this prayer in the 1930’s.

This prayer is still our prayer today, in the rapid times of change....

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference

As a parent I want to ground my children in God’s foundational TRUTH that never changes, so that when the winds of secularism blow through, they know when NOT to change and when to be OPEN to change.  As a Pastor and Leader, I long to know when God’s foundational TRUTH gives me strength to hold onto what is important, when to show grace and love and when to stand firm.  In my own personal faith walk I long to know GOD’s foundational TRUTH in such a way that I know when to be silent and listen, when and how to speak of issues which arise daily that we can no longer avoid or sit on the fence about.

To "change or not to change?" that is a REAL question.