Change Should We Really Hate It?

Recently where I work we have been going through a lot change, nothing that’s new to me, or anyone else.  We all go through changes, yet it is one of the most hated things.  Most people do not like change they tend to really dislike it, at best most times they hate it.  I find myself in an odd spot to complain about change, since I have at times made changes that have been disliked.  I understand that change is not always fun and sometimes comes at inconvenient times.  I wondered why we hate change so much, after all isn’t change happening all the time.  If we didn’t change we would never grow, think about that for a second. If we were born and stayed a baby and never changed then the simple conclusion is none of us would be around.  At some point in history someone said we should build our houses out of wood instead leaves.  What if when electricity came around everyone said stop right there, we have lived long enough without it so let us not go any further with this crazy notion. We don’t want change.

We all have that friend that changed how they ate and started working out then lost a bunch weight, most of us congratulate them.  Ever think of how much of a challenge it was for the person, around every corner was someone saying, skip working out, you can eat unhealthy it’s ok.  I think, and I may be wrong but, I think we all dislike change because it scares us.  We are afraid of change because it means we have to start doing things differently, we are worried that we might miss out on something big.  We don’t want to start budgeting because then we are going to see what we have to get rid of in order to save money and pay off debt.  We are scared that people are going to talk bad about us if we tell them that we stopped eating out to save money, or worse yet think we are going broke.  We are worried if we change that we are going to lose friends.  What if we began to embrace change, and really look deep into our lives and say what do we need to do to live a better, more satisfying life.

What if instead of fighting change we began to embrace change, I’m not talking about change at work or who gets elected.  I’m talking about taking a good long look at our lives and saying what do I need to do to become the best person I can be.  Maybe you have always wanted to be finically free, but you have been too afraid to make the changes you need to make because you like living life as you have been and you’re afraid of what you might miss if you get rid of cable, vacations, eating out.  Maybe you have been wanting to get in shape but you are afraid to take the steps needed to lose the extra weight, you are afraid everyone is going to stare at you when you walk in gym (trust me they won’t), you’re afraid of starting and not finishing.  Who knows what is holding you back from doing what you want to do.  What if we started living life, embracing change, and saying I was once afraid to do new things and I never realized how much I missed because of it. 

This part is for those who follow God, or those who want to follow God.  I realize that many times the church is extremely anti-change, yet it is unavoidable, everything changes.  I have lived through some of the most interesting times, I have seen more change in music, movies, television shows.  I realize that it’s not all bad, but it is not all good either.  I am going say that we know that God’s love has not changed, God’s law has not changed, God’s perfect Judgment has not changed.  But we as Christians need to be changing, not how we worship God, not the church buildings, I am talking about our relationship with God, we need to begin to take a long hard look at how are we living our lives. Are we truly living our live to bring honor to God?  Are we looking to draw closer to God, are we doing things that are separating us from God and therefore damaging or walk with Him?  What are we as Christians afraid of? Are we afraid of losing friends, being made fun by our peers, what we might be missing out on?  Christ came to change us, to bring light into a dark.  Christ said in John 3:16-20; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”