cliché time once again

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: change is inevitable… except from a vending machine.

I know that’s not very original, but it still makes me chuckle.

None of us like change, but it is a fact of life: we are all getting older and that brings about change (male pattern baldness for example – see my picture in about me); society and organisations evolve and adapt which necessitates change; seasons come and go bringing different weather patterns.

I think one of the things that we fear most about change is when the change is sudden and unexpected (take the reaction to Pope Benedict’s unexpected resignation, for example). sudden and unexpected change is much more difficult to adapt to than gradual change because the latter enables us to acclimatise whereas we have to react instantly to the former. The often used analogy is that if you were to drop a frog into a pan of boiling water it would jump out immediately but if you put it into cold water and gradually raise the temperature it will not notice the change until it is too late. That analogy does seem rather unfair on hypothetical frogs and also suggests that the outcome of change is negative. That is not always the case.

Regular bloggists here will know that back in November I had an operation to renew an occipital nerve stimulator that I have installed within my body in order to moderate a chronic migraine. The effect of the stimulator is very gradual and I have been impatient to be able to say that it is definitely working whilst not being able to say for sure if that is the case given that the change is so gradual. I’m pleased to be able to say that it is definitely making a difference and that the likelihood is that (as with the previous ONS) the migraine should soon be a thing of the past and at the moment is running at a much diminished level. Thank you for your prayers and support.

The change that God brings about within each one of us, because his Spirit is within us, is often (and perhaps usually) gradual too. Occasionally God makes dramatic and sudden changes within us that my experience is that for the most part change is almost imperceptible. It is only as we look back that we realise how much God has changed this. We find that his Spirit is bearing fruit in our lives and changing us to become more like the people he has created us to be. Even the image of fruit bearing should remind us that it will be a gradual process: fruit does not grow overnight!

I think we should all have badges that say, “Please be patient with me, I am a work in progress.” God is at work in each one of us in different ways doing different things changing different aspects of our life and personality as is best for each one of us. We need to be very careful that we do not tell other people what changes God should be bringing about in their life – that’s his job. We need to be very careful to that we do not impose what God is doing with us as the standard for everybody else.

God’s new community, a.k.a. church, should be a place of grace not of rules. It should be a place where we recognise that we are all works in progress and nobody has the right to judge anybody else about the rate of progress or the aspects of their life that God is currently working on. Jesus reserved his harshest words for religious people who were confident of their own righteousness and pointed fingers, excluded and condemned others. Please God don’t let us be like that. Let us be free samples of Jesus the gracious, welcoming, blessing, joyful, incarnate one who is God’s “yes”.

Be blessed, be a blessing.