Let’s face it, change is difficult, even when we know we need to change, because it asks us to alter our habits. We are wired to resist change. We are wired to survive, and doing new things brings uncertainty and uncertainty is never a good feeling. As Rob Ketterling, in his book, Change Before You Have To points out, “A known bondage is more comfortable than an unknown freedom. The longer we avoid change, the more comfortable we grow with struggles.”
We have a persistent desire to travel along old, familiar
and successful paths of the past. They are well-worn paths of behavior.
We have a tendency to drive in ruts and our brains have a
tendency to think and behave in ruts. Just change your route to work or change
a piece of furniture in your house and try and walk around in the dark. Stewart
Black calls these powerful mental maps that tell us how to act and make choices
(Leading Strategic Change: Breaking
Through the Brain Barrier).
Rob Ketterling remembers his doctor telling him was how
difficult it is for people to change even when they are suffering from the
effects of what they need to change. “For example, my doctor told me that he
would take smokers around the hospital and show them the horrible things that
might happen to them if they continued to smoke. The experience would be an eye
opening one, for sure. But the doctor admitted that it rarely created true, lasting
change.” (16)
But change is possible. As the Apostle Paul writes, If the
same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwells in us, he will quicken our
mortal bodies as well. We can be new creations in Christ. We can live
differently and experience His abundance here as well as having hope for
eternity.
You see, God wants us to live in health: spiritually,
physically, relationally and yes, financially, but in order to do that, some of
us need to make serious lifestyle choices that involve change.
This is our basic premise: God has in incredible plan for
our lives, and in order to experience it, we are going to have to make
significant changes. We have to stop doing some things that are hindering our
progress and start doing the things that lead to the incredible future God has
for us.
There is a path that people
who change will follow. It is helpful for us to be aware of that path as it
gives us insight into some of the challenges we face in our quest for change.
1. Recognize the need for
change.
We read in the Hebrew Scriptures that one of the Kings of Judah was
Josiah. He was eight years old when he became king. Under his leadership, the
nation experienced one of the greatest spiritual reforms in history. He
recognized that the nation had fallen into great apostasy and he systematically
cleansed the land of idolatry and restored the worship of the one true God –
Jehovah.
In the same way, we need a
holy discontentment. We have to let go of our position of pride and take a
posture of humility and the willingness to acknowledge that the path we are
currently on will not lead us to a better life. Pride does not have a happy
ending.
2. Define reality.
We must do
the base-line assessments in order to make adjustments. To do this we need to
get a check up physically, take our spiritual temperature, review our
relationships, and look at our budget. We can’t go to where we want to go if we
don’t know where we are now. This is quite often the most difficult part of
leadership because it forces us to look not only to the long term future, but
set purposeful next steps. We did this as we looked at our present situation in
kid’s ministry. We have wonderful volunteers, but we were limited in our
capacity. If we were going to make the difference we believe God wants us to
make, we had to step it up in this area. Defining that reality helped us make
the choice to hire a children’s pastor.
3. See a different future.
We
have to see it before we see it. I had the opportunity to visit a church I
pastored in West Virginia years ago. When I arrived that morning, I drove to
the place on top of a hill where I envisioned the future over twenty years ago.
I saw the buildings, the ball fields, and the parking lots long before they
became a reality. I saw how God would use this property to make a difference in
the community.
When we see a different
future, we will have new hope, new and fresh ideas, new attitudes, new
relationships, new convictions and we will create new environments and
experience new adventures.
I am always reminded of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. when talking about seeing a different future. It was his
dream for equality that drove him to leading the change that we celebrate
today.
Ketterling said, “Change
occurs at the intersection of hope and opportunity”
4. Believe that change is
possible.
We have to believe that in Christ all things are possible. This is
not self-help but Holy Spirit empowered. We have to believe that God has a
great plan in store for us. Let’s camp at a letter written thousands of years
ago to a nation that was living in captivity. It is a promise written by “the
weeping prophet.” This is the message from God:
"For I know the plans I
have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you." (Jeremiah 29:1-14)
This is an incredible promise,
and they were instructed to live their lives based on the promise and God is saying to you the
same thing: “I have a plan for you. Stop listening to the enemy in your head,
the voices of discouragement and lies. There is hope for your future. Keep
seeking me. It’s going to take a while, but I am in control.” We may have been waiting
forever for something to happen but God knows the future.
We have a belief system that
assumes a particular outcome. It is made up of experience, culture and what we
have been taught. Stewart Black gives us insight into this. We don’t try new
things because we believe we will be bad at it. That’s why we have a hard time
believing we can learn a new language, or build new relationships, or witness
to our neighbor, or play an instrument, or speak in public. We see ourselves as
making a fool of ourselves. A salesman might not sell a new product because he
might be asked a question he can’t answer. For some, it is not changing
the amount of time they spend with our kids because we imagine a negative
outcome.
Which leads us to the next
step in our path to change.
5. Replace the lies with truth
Sola scriptura" is a
phrase from the Latin: sola having the idea of “alone,” “ground,”
“base,” and the word scriptura meaning “writings”—referring to the
Scriptures. Sola scriptura means that Scripture alone is authoritative
for the faith and practice of the Christian. The Bible is complete, authoritative,
and true. Sola scriptura was the rallying cry of the Protestant
Reformation. For centuries the Roman Catholic Church had made its traditions
superior in authority to the Bible. This resulted in many practices that were
in fact contradictory to the Bible. Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran
Church and father of the Protestant Reformation, was publicly rebuking the
Catholic Church for its unbiblical teachings. The Catholic Church threatened
Martin Luther with excommunication (and death) if he did not recant. Martin
Luther's reply was, “Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of
Scripture, or by the clearest reasoning, unless I am persuaded by means of the
passages I have quoted, and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the
Word of God, I cannot and will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to
speak against his conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me!
Amen!”
[http://www.gotquestions.org/sola-scriptura.html]
[http://www.gotquestions.org/sola-scriptura.html]
The lie was that we can only
have a relationship with God through a relationship with the Catholic Church.
The truth is that salvation is found in Christ alone.
We also have internal lies
that keep us from change and what we tell ourselves is critical. We are
consumed with our own past, which will either trap us, or it will propel us
forward. We tell ourselves we can’t change. We will never be smart enough,
never get out of debt, never repair our marriage, get that promotion, lose
those extra pounds, not good enough, or disciplined, etc. But that is not the
truth. The truth is that if God is for us, no one can be against us.
6. Map out the change.
Stewart
Blake tells the story of a time when auto executives went to Japan to see one
of their manufacturing plants. They noticed that the workers did not take a
hammer and tap around the edges of the doors to make sure they fit properly.
When asked about it, the Japanese responded, “We make sure it fits when we
design it.” They engineered the outcome before they started.
It is certain that things
will not go specifically as we planned, but a failure to plan the next step is
a failure to believe in the vision. God may give you a picture of the future,
but he rarely supplies the blueprints – except if you are building a
tabernacle.
7. Confront the challenges head
on.
We will have internal challenges such as pride and insecurity, which in my
opinion are closely related dysfunctional cousins. We also have the external
voices that resist us. Not everyone will jump on your bandwagon of change. Some
people like the old you. Our friend King Josiah was met with a whole nation
that wasn’t happy about the spiritual reforms.
When Martin Luther nailed
his ninety-five thesis to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church condemning the
selling of indulgences and calling into question the popes authority, he lost
most of his friends.
He was declared to be a
heretic and an outlaw. His literature was to be banned, and he was to be
arrested. It also became a crime for anyone within the empire to give Luther
safe haven. Further, the assembly sanctioned the death of Martin Luther with no
legal consequences under the law. It was in exile that Martin Luther was able
to translate the New Testament into German.
Most of us will not be
called to go up against the Pope, but we will all face resistance, challenges
and setbacks. The path will not always be smooth. There is never the perfect
time and there are never enough resources. All the pieces will not be in place.
Just remember who you are serving and keep moving.
8. Align your actions with your
beliefs.
I can hear Bishop T.D. Jakes preaching now, “Get Ready. Get Ready. Get Ready!” I actually
never heard him say it, but I can imagine it. I’m not talking about getting
hyped up, I’m talking about actually preparing yourself. If you are going to
continue your education, you should learn how to type, or speed read, or study.
If you are going to be a missionary, you will have to learn the language of the
country you are going to. Take a course so when you arrive at the place of
change, you will be equipped to live there. For this, you have to create space
in your calendar in order to learn.
9. Engage with some and
disengage with others.
Most business books talk about getting the right people
on the bus and getting other off the bus. The idea is that we need the right
people on our team in order to accomplish what we are trying to achieve.
Nehemiah might have built the Jerusalem wall in fifty-two days, but he did not
do it alone. He engaged others for resources, encouragement and support.
At the same time, we have to
regrettably disengage with others. We don’t have to be obnoxious about it, but
there are some people that will keep you from moving forward. They are ones
that breed discouragement or distraction or disunity. My caution, beware of the
one who brings you gossip, at some point, you will be the target of their
gossip.
10. Be accountable.
I hate to
floss, but makes me do it is I know that every six months I sit in a dentist
chair and the hygienist will ask one question, “Are you flossing?” This is
before she looks in my mouth. I know this is silly, but I don’t want to
disappoint her and I don’t even have the same one every time, and as soon as
the dentist walks in, she says, “Mr. Edwards is taking care of his teeth and
flosses.” I want the lollypop now. Knowing that we are with someone on the
journey that will ask us from time to time how things are going is so
important in our lives. Whatever change we are making, we have a greater
chance of success when we tell someone that we will see again.
10. Stick with it.
Be
persistent. When you are making a change of behavior, you have to be determined
and relentless. For one a season of my life I was a church planting director
for our network of 320 churches called The Potomac District. I’ll never forget
when an eighty year old man, named Claude Qualls, whom we called “Pappa Qualls”
showed up in my office saying he wanted to plant another church. He was not
ready to quit. Unfortunately, his health could not sustain his passion and he
passed away shortly thereafter, but he was not going to quit. He was determined
to see a church in a community that had no church.
Far too many of us give up
before we get a chance to see the fulfillment of what God is asking us to do.
12. Monitor the change and make
adjustments.
A wonderful book on change
is Who Moved My Cheese? by Spenser Johnson This is a simple parable that
reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story
of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and
make them happy. Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are “little
people” – beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their
names are Hem and Haw. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life –
whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health,
or spiritual peace of mind. The maze is
where you look for what you want – the organization you work in, or the family
or community you live in.
In the
story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them
deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience
on the maze walls. The third handwriting on the wall is “monitor the change.”
He writes, “smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old.” While
we are going through change, we have to continually ask if what we are doing is
actually working.
Sometimes
this is a painful process because you made a decision you thought would work,
but you find it was not a good fit, but the quicker we can change the sooner
you can enjoy new cheese.
This
leads us to the next stage:
13. Celebrate
the change to make it stick.
We have to savor the new adventure and enjoy the
journey. King Josiah sealed the
spiritual reforms by reinstituting the Passover which hadn’t been celebrated as
a country nearly 400 years. It was to remind them of what God had done in their
lives and it sealed their commitment.
For the Christian church, we
celebrate communion. It reminds us that God loves us so much that he sent his
son to die on a cross and rise from the dead so that we can experience abundant
life now and eternal life with God.
As we wrap this up, here are
a few questions to reflect on:
- What are the things God is asking you to change?
- What change do you see and what is the benefit of that change?
- What has delayed you in making a change in your life?
- Who are the people you need around you in order to make that change?
A great prayer for us is
called the serenity prayer: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I
cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know
the difference.
