I tend to like change. Until it actually happens.
My sister is more realistic. She doesn’t like change, and she knows it. I’m a bit more all over the place. When a potential life change looms on the horizon, I get excited—perhaps it’s the latent pioneer girl in me. Then it actually hits: starting at a new school, going overseas to Oxford, England, for a semester, having my little sister go off to college. And I collapse in confusion and tears, wishing everything would go back to the comfy way it was before.
I know, rather pitiful.
The past year or so has brought huge changes for my family. Moving to a new home after our grandmother passed away. My sister graduating homeschool high school and heading off to university. Our Christian theater company going on hiatus. Health challenges. New opportunities and relationships, good and exciting, but still sometimes scary.
And I remember how I’ve often reacted to change in the past. Time and again the Lord has reminded me not to look back after putting my hand to the plow, as I tend to do that all too often. Not because the changes He brings aren’t good, but because even when they are, I still tend to be a Much-Afraid.
What about you? Are you facing changes right now, good ones or perhaps hard ones? Or maybe changes that are both…they often seem to be.
My mom has told me how, when she came back to the States and dealt with reverse culture shock after living in France for a year in college, she felt like she was standing on the beach in the surf’s edge, feeling the ground literally sucked from under her feet by the undertow. But how in the midst of so much shifting, Jesus was her Rock.
What I need to do in these times of change is look to Him too, who always remains His faithful Self, “though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.” (Psalm 46:2)
For He promises us:
You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.~Isaiah 26:3-4
Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.~Isaiah 54:10
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
~Hebrews 13:8
There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
~I Samuel 2:2
And David’s beautiful song of rejoicing:
I love you, Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold…
For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure…The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!~Psalm 18:1-2, 31-32, 46
Are you facing change right now? How has He been your Rock in shifting sands of the past?
There is a scene in Joshua 3 where the priests are ordered to step into the Jordan during flood season carrying the Ark of the Covenant. That is how I feel at the moment publishing a work that sets out to show God’s goodness in our darkest hours. The fear that setting my little feet into this big unknown river, I might be drowned and drop the work the Lord has put Himself in, is a constant whisper of the enemy. But I know my God is the same one I have set my pen to share. That His promise to give me dry ground is not based on my ability but His goodness. So I step out with the expectation that where He leads, He will make a way.
This is so exciting, Jessica, publishing your book! Yet I can only imagine how scary it is too…truly a “stepping into the Jordan” moment. But I know the Lord must have wonderful plans to touch people through your story. May He keep you in His perfect peace and be your rock through all the ups and downs of this journey…bless you!
I’m in the midst of change. And it sometimes seems to me that the only thing constant is change. There’s an old spiritual that my church used to sing–“Hold On To God’s Unchanging Hand!” Your blog took me back to my childhood and reminded that that’s all I have to do in this season, for He truly is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and will safely guide me. Thanks for the reminder!
That’s so good, Sandra…”Hold On to God’s Unchanging Hand.” That’s all we really have to do, isn’t it? Now I want to look that song up. Thank you for sharing, friend!