Change

Are you afraid of change? Maybe the more important question is this, “Are you aware that everything around has already changed?” You and I are in a constant state of change, and it is out of our control.

Peter Drucker, an expert on management wrote: 'Every few hundred years throughout western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of a decade, society altogether rearranges itself—its worldview, its basic values, its society and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later, a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their parents were born. Our age is such a period of transformation, signaled by the introduction of the knowledge society.'

What are you doing personally to grow? What have you learned to do this year that you did not know how to do last year? Routine is the slow death of growth. I am not suggesting that all routines are debilitating. But, I am asking you to consider that the mindless cycle of our repetitive mediocrity is a destructive path that diminishes our desire to grow. In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says it this way, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Consider this statistic, “According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.” Turn the television off! Invest at least part of those four hours per day into personal growth. Look at the disparity between television viewing and Bible reading, “According to the Barna Research Group, those who read the Bible regularly spend about 52 minutes a week in the scriptures.” That’s twenty-eight hours per week watching TV, compared to less than one hour per week reading the Bible.

Is it possible the reason you and I are continuing the same cycle of unsustainable growth because we are so out of balance regarding secular and Godly input into our lives? We used to tell our children when they were small, “Trash in-trash out!” I think the same is true for all of us “big” people today. We are the product of what we are consuming; spiritually, emotionally, physically, psychologically, ect. We must grow. 1 Peter 2:1-2 reminds us to, “lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” You and I are the result of our personal desires-plain and simple. The problem with that is the inability to change we are nurturing in our society.

Change is inevitable! The climate is changing in an irreversible manner! Some call it Global Warming in an effort to sell Carbon Credits; we know it as Biblical prophecy. Technology is doubling every two years now, and is expected to double every seventy-eight minutes in less than ten years. You must change to grow! Why not start to today by seeking God for His intended growth for your life.

Let me leave you with this passage from The Message Bible in Hebrews 6:1-3, “So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!”