Change Happens

“For what it’s worth it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.” - Benjamin Button, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

No one wants to change for the worst. I don’t think any drug addict started off thinking, “Gee, I’d really like to become physically dependent on this stuff to the point that I will abandon the people closest to me so I can get more of it.” No one begins a new school year saying, “Oh boy, I think I want to flunk all my classes and waste my teachers’ and my time and have to do this all over again!” I’ve never met a parent who said, “I can’t wait until my child gets old enough to fend for himself so I can ignore his needs and focus only on me.”

No one does that. But, all three scenarios, even as extreme as they are, occur every day. People don’t neglect their children, flunk out of school, and get addicted to drugs intentionally, but these are the possible results when we don’t pay attention to our habits.

Most of us won’t end up in any of the above nightmare scenarios, but we will miss the very best that God has planned for us when we neglect paying close attention to our habitual behaviors. We mostly set ourselves on autopilot and start heading in a direction. But when we arrive we discover it’s not exactly where we hoped we would be: the guy who experiences financial success but is so distant from his spouse that he hardly knows her at the end of the day; the mom whose life was totally consumed by kids, that when the last one leaves the nest, she doesn’t recognize the face sitting across the breakfast table; the college student who started school with a strong faith but never participated in a college ministry and graduates with little or no faith, wondering why life has lost much of its meaning.

Life has a kind of entropy about it. It tends to slowly breakdown over time, especially if we don’t keep a close check on our habits.

In order to experience the positive change that we desire and live the very best life we can, we must put energy into maintaining the very best habits and behaviors. Life has a way of passing us by if we don’t truthfully reflect on where we’re heading and make those little course corrections along the way. God has an amazing destination plotted out for us and he has called us to partner with him in living the amazing life he has planned! I will be sharing and exciting message this week at Christ Church, part of the Happy New You! series titled Changing for the Better. Change is inevitable, but I want to change in the direction of God’s very best life for me. See you in worship!