The Change I Find Most Challenging

Change…. It is constant. Sometimes it is good. Sometimes it is bad. Sometimes it is both. Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes it is optional.

Bill brown

There are those we love who despise change, and those we love who live for it. Sometimes change is chosen. Sometimes it is forced upon us. There are changes in organizations and changes in individuals. There are changes that create conflict and changes that bring cooperation. In this world there is change, and it is constant.

For leaders, whether in the church, the private sector, or in elected office, facilitating changes that yield positive results in the organization and individuals you serve is your duty and calling. As a pastor in full-time service to three separate congregations over the past 24 years, I can say that I have had the opportunity to facilitate changes in each setting. In hindsight, the big changes I have been entrusted to lead have generally yielded positive results. While they improved the overall, long-term health of the church I was serving, they were somewhat painful transitions to make for all involved. There were personal struggles and organizational difficulties. However, with the focus on why we were doing what we were doing and a firm commitment to one another, the churches came through those times of transition and were better for it. Change was good but was certainly not easy.

Of all the necessary changes I have been in a position to influence and facilitate, there is one that stands above all others as most difficult. It is one with which I have wrestled in each of the churches I have served and continue to deal with today. It is one that has had significant impact on my effectiveness as a “shepherd” in the local Church…. By far, my biggest challenge is the challenge of change in ME.

I have come to realize that I am not the only one who has found personal change to be difficult. With a hint of exasperation, the Apostle Paul expressed his struggle to live a godly life in Romans 7. He declares,

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing… What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:15-25 NIV

What I am trying to learn and constantly remember is what Paul articulates here and in the remainder of the Book of Romans. It is only by faith in the work of Christ and through HIS work in me that I AM transformed from who I was into who He created me to be and become. My task is to surrender my will to His daily – not to earn or maintain my salvation but to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom.12:2).” I am not capable of changing myself into someone better, someone more Christ-like, but Jesus is. As I submit to His authority and make choices consistent with His will, empowered by the Holy Spirit Who lives in me, I AM changed.

I have been rescued “from this body of death” by the One in Whom is “life that is the light of men.” In Him I have a Comforter who is with me always, empowering me to do the “the good works he has prepared in advance for us to do.” I know that I’m incapable of changing myself, and “Thank God” that in Christ I don’t have to try to change alone because “he who began a good work in (me) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil. 1