Winds of Change
The days are ending sooner. The cold and rain abounds. The trees are shedding their auburn leaves and the flowers are dying away. It is the middle of a change in season and as I write this from my wooden desk, I contemplate the changes occurring within and around me.
Change is natural. However, that does not keep us from viewing and receiving it with fear and hesitation. Change comes in many different forms, but its most simple manifestation is that of life and death. Both life and death disturb us because we are finite and we cannot understand the doings of He who is infinite. Change has come for me several times this year. It did not come quietly or with subtlety, but rather while being bold and outlandish. I accepted it with trembling arms. As I survey all that is growing around me, I also see what seems to be dying. As I grow, I am made more uncomfortably aware of the dichotomy of life and death. However, in the same way that the light of God shines through the darkness, life takes place in the presence of death.
The thing about God and change is that neither put a stop to their work just because we are uncomfortable. We cannot resist and we cannot retreat. We must realize that while there are times when we can rest in the comfort of the lord, there are also times when we must confront that which is uncomfortable. The lord has wonderful plans for each of us, but before we can be fully utilized in them we must first be fully aligned with Christ. Because we are flawed, that alignment takes place through us growing and changing.
Being confronted by the changing winds of life will, most likely, always be frightening. However, understanding that there is a time and place for both resting and changing and that the lord ordains both of those times may slowly make us more comfortable with the journey.
- Eddan Sparks
