Courage to Change? Seize the Day (Part I of III)
Two caterpillars were crawling across the grass when a butterfly flew over them. They looked up, and one nudged the other and said, “You couldn’t get me up in one of those things for a million dollars.”
Change in our lives is always hard and many times traumatic. More times than not, like this caterpillar, change comes calling when we least expect it.
Concerning change, writer Art Sanson said, “My great-grandfather rode a horse but he would not go near a train. Grandpa rode on trains but he was afraid of automobiles. Pop drove a car, but was afraid to fly. I love to fly, but I’m afraid to ride a horse.” Sometimes, the more something “changes,” the more it stays the same. Annual New Year’s resolutions and promises to quit this and to stop that come and go like the seasons of the year. Expectations and hopes dance like a roller coaster with disappointments and despair as anticipated changes never quite materialize.
Most people would rather lend money to a politician than change or see their friends change. After all, life is good. Life is comfortable. Monday Night Football with the guys is great. So we say to ourselves, “Why change anything and ruin a good deal?”
Two men were adrift on a raft in the open sea; and it looked bad for them. Finally, one of them, desperately frightened, began to pray: “O Lord, I’ve broken most of the commandments. I’ve got some pretty bad habits – I get drunk, I curse, I steal, I treat people like dirt. But if my life is spared now, O Lord, I promise You that I’ll change, that I’ll never again curse, that I’ll …” Suddenly his friend cried out to him, “Wait, Jack. Don’t go too far. I think I see a ship.”
Change is hard and most folks never think twice about changing any part of their lives. But nobody has to stay the way they are.
The Apostles, particularly Peter, found it very difficult to let go of their Jewish roots and all of its rituals and religious rules. Peter needed a supernatural dream from God to encourage him to change his attitude towards Judaism in particular and Gentiles in general. (Acts 10). But Peter did not completely change the way God wanted him to, and later in Antioch Peter would not allow himself to be seen eating with the Gentile Christians for fear of offending the Jewish Christians. (Gal. 2:11 ff.) Just like you and just like me, it was hard, nearly impossible, for this great fisherman and Apostle to change core beliefs and convictions that had been formed and nurtured over a lifetime.
Do you know what pleases God? Seeing us change and grow and be more like Jesus each day we live our lives. There is always room to change our attitudes, our words, our choices, our inclinations, our dispositions, our behavior.
Too many of us would say, “I’m too old to change … This is the way I have always been … Accept me as I am.” On and on we can go with the excuses not to change.
“I’ll do it later .. I’m too busy doing important things … You change first and then I will change.”
Next Time: From the Gospel of Mark, a story about a man who wanted to change considered in Part II of “Courage to Change? Seize the Day?”
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hris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.