What’s that saying, “the calm before the storm?”  In Matthew 16: 1-4,  Jesus talks about how some of the people could judge the change coming in weather by reading the sky, yet they could not judge or interpret the change coming to the world by the signs of the times.

Yesterday was a somewhat nice January day.  In the fifties, slight wind, but not so bad.  As most of us, I had heard of the frigid cold front coming out of the arctic from the local and national forecasters.  So I was outside winterizing some of the pipes when I noticed a growing cloud formation coming our way.  Mark Green was walking by and mentioned the thick blue mass moving across the sky and so did Tracie.  We all could see or read the sky and know something was going to happen.  Yet, even with some kind of apparent front moving in our direction I could not tell what we were in store for in the next few days.  I was depending on the warning from the forecasters.  I joke about the weathermen/women, but without their warning a lot of people could have been stuck out in this dangerous arctic freeze unprepared.

Change can be good, change can be bad, but oddly enough change is humanities most dependable constant; be it to people or the planet.  The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius understood the permanent differences change can make in nature including humanity.  He wrote, “For whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, at once this change of state is the death of that which was before.”  Not bad for a pagan!  In the 12th book of John, verses 24-25, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  Woo!  As we use to say back in the day, “that’s some heavy stuff dude!”  The often ignored truth of the Gospel and all scripture is that God knows things are changing and wants, desires our change to be for good, not evil, towards God, not more self indulgence.  Yet it’s amazing how we insist on living as if everything, including ourselves will stay the same. Christianity doesn’t ask for a permanent change within us, it demands we desire to move toward God.  The good life we are all striving for also demands our change.  True peace, joy and inner strength come from our relationship with our Lord.

So how about a reality check?  It’s after New Years and most of us have been thinking about what we want to do to improve ourselves this year.  We’ve already seen all the ads for gym membership and diet programs.  We’ve heard our friends; acquaintance and even our self-talk about how this year there will be change.  All this change is of course to make our life better.  The truth is at the end of the year we will still be our self, possible with a few outside or cosmetic changes, a little more or less money, but the same person never the less.  Thus the same problems, maybe in different forms, will still be with us.  Our life appears different but deep down it’s the same.  The only true change I’ve witnessed or experienced is that which the person allowed to happen.  The one initiated and pursued by God.   It is the invitation to accept core change and put Christ, the Lord, the Creator, into the center of our life and not in some dusty room of our soul.  Want change, let change, live change, otherwise we should quit complaining because we have what we have created, for better or worse.

May the peace of Christ be with you always,

Pastor Rick