Change

I’ve never been too happy about change.  Unless it’s found at the bottom of my purse, allowing me the ability to purchase something sweet from the vending machine, I’m pretty much resistant to it.  Nevertheless, life brings change.  God operates in seasons, and while early in my walk with the Lord I had no concept of this, I learned quickly.  There are seasons of waiting, seasons of testing, trials, rest, blessings, etc… I tend to enjoy the seasons of blessings more, not gonna lie…But I appreciate those harder seasons in hindsight.  Because those were the times I grew the closest to the Lord and matured the most.  I learned His ways.  That He is strong, and that we can truly do all things through Him.  One of the hardest changes for me was when my old roommate moved out and got married.  It was around Christmas time, and my other roommate and I assumed we would get another roommate.  There was some disagreement about who the new roommate would be.  If only we had known there was no need to be upset about the difference of opinion, because as it turns out, our season in that house would end shortly after our roommate moved out to start her new life with her hubby.  I remember sitting in the living room on the couch, looking at the Christmas tree, feeling a bit empty.  Realizing that things were changing.  Another hard change was when my pastors moved away, along with several members of our church.  My pastors were like parents and I was extremely close to them.  Around the time they had moved, my grandmother had also passed away.  I was getting hit with a lot of changes at that time.  Yet in both instances God had something new for me.  After my roommate got hitched, I got my own apartment and spent 2 years living on my own while in grad school.  It was such a great time of independence and alone time, just me and Jesus.  Also, once my pastors moved away, I became very close to our other set of pastors…I’m closer to them now than I’ve ever been to any pastors.  They are truly my spiritual parents.  And now, having said those things, I want to share another change.  A close friend of mine recently shared some very disturbing news to me.  Several important doctrinal views of his have changed.  This friend is someone near and dear to my heart, someone I truly think of as a brother because we had some life changing experiences together and some great encounters with Yeshua.  And yet, he has changed.  His current views made me double check my own.  I felt that my world was turned upside down in a moment’s time and I questioned my perception of God.  Yet, I was reminded of Paul and in his letters how he would mention different people leaving the faith.  People in his inner circle leaving him.  2 Timothy 4:9 “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica-Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.  Only Luke is with me….Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm…At my first defense no one stood with me but all forsook me.  May it not be charged against them.”  While it hurts when your inner circle changes and when those who you were running alongside you have decided to take a different route, or stop running altogether, it is not the end of the world.  As Paul shares, the Lord is faithful to stay by your side “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me…”.  And it is my hope that my path and my friend’s path will intersect again.  And we will find ourselves running together again, just like in the old days.  Even still, I’m learning that only God stays the same.  He is always the same.