 |
|
Change
So, the next-to-last day of the old year found me plodding painfully through our son's FAFSA (why don't these get easier?), enjoying a late supper with family, annnnd. . . staying up all night at the mercy of a mean stomach bug. Um, yeah. Not really what I had planned, but, such is life. You make plans, and they change. Change is the one thing we can count on in the new year.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, had planned to marry Joseph and lead a quiet life, not to become the mother of the Savior of the world. As far as I can tell, Peter had no plans other than to continue fishing, just like James and John, sons of the fisherman, Zebedee. Matthew probably planned to continue lining his pockets by collecting too many taxes. Pontius Pilate, master of the rhetorical question, seemed most interested in climbing the Roman political ladder and most likely had no plans to have such a divisive controversy thrust upon him. Lazarus, I'm sure, had no plans to die, let alone no plans to rise from the dead! And Saul-become-Paul? Well, he had no inkling of the Light that would blind him on the Damascus Road and change not only his name, but also the entire course of his life.
What awaits us in this new year? There's no way to know.
But there are two things I know: 1) Change will come, and 2) God never changes. He is eternally the same, neither modern, nor out of date. Never early, never late, and always enough.
I take great comfort in knowing that the God who led Israel out of the wilderness, still leads people out of their own personal wildernesses today. The God who met the needs of Noah and Moses, Job and David, Ruth and Naomi, Peter and John, and several very different Marys, still meets the needs of regular, everyday folks like them (like us!) today. The only thing that set those biblical folks apart from others in their day was their willingness to trust God with the future, unforeseeable as it was. As it still is today.
As Daniel proclaimed hundreds of years ago during the tumultuous times in which he lived:
"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.
So, if you're looking to begin a new habit that will positively affect your life in the new year, why not try seeking God in new, more intentional ways? Don't just go on believing what you've always heard about God and the Bible. Pray. Read the book for yourself. And let me know how it goes, will you? I'd love to hear about your journey. Ask me about mine. After all, none of us have arrived. "We're all," as the saying goes, "just walking each other home."
Daye Phillippo
January 2018