Change

That word has come up more than I like this last week. But, for once, the change is not focused on me. However, it seems like an inordinate amount of my friends are facing some severe changes in their lives. I'm glad that I faced mine down last fall and winter. It seems like I need to be a bit more stable as these friends are dealing with all of their stuff.

1. A friend in Florida is trying to decipher God's plan for her life as her son has been told he can no longer attend school where he is because they no longer reside in that county. She knows that she wants to move to a completely different city, but is the timing right for that? Only God knows.

2. A friend in Lincoln just lost a position with a major Christian company. She knows that God has been calling her away from that position for quite some time, but what is next? Will the job that she has been praying about for nearly 1 year finally fall into place? Or is God calling her to be somewhere else.

3. A friend in Omaha is facing a complete change in her marriage. She will face singleness again and in the midst of that change will be dealing with much ugliness and pain. She is looking for a new job as well, but the solidity of that has yet to come into her life. What is God doing with her life?

4. My brother has 4 children and is trying to discern God's plan as these kids begin planning for major changes in their lives. His eldest son took the ACTs today, is at his first Prom tonight and begins his senior year in high school this fall ... changes are going to take place. Matt is also facing heart surgery this summer to repair a hole. His youngest daughter is adopted, has severe ramifications from fetal alcohol syndrome and they are trying to figure out what to do next with her - how all of this will impact her and the family.

5. Much less important in the lives of the world, but it was hilarious to me was a change that we are trying to implement in my workplace. There are those who resist any type of change and react quite negatively when faced with it. Verbal attacks and stalling are set into motion when change begins to happen.

6. Max has to begin making some decisions in the last period of his ankle recuperation as he looks for a new job. What does God have planned for him ... and for us?

7. A friend in Omaha with cancer has been dealing with life changes as she left the job that she loves and faces an uphill battle with this recurrence.

8. The staff at church is faced with the idea of a new director coming in that will be in supervision over all of us. While exciting, the concern of not knowing who it is or how they will handle that supervision is still there.

Let's just say that my prayers have been focused on 'change' this last week. I can't believe the incredible flux that my friends, family and myself have been in.

This afternoon Max and I were discussing the 'Christian world-view' and how we can not imagine life without the comfort of knowing that there is a God who is above all of the stress that we live with. We can rely on this God and can be comfortable in the fact that our Creator is greater than we are and knows where we are going and what will be happening to us.

How do you face getting up in the morning without that assurance? I can not imagine.

I'm so thankful for a God who does not change. With all of the craziness that I face, my God remains rock solid.

This is an amazing passage from the Psalms - Psalm 102:25-27

"In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discared. But you remain the same, and your years will never end."

From the beginning of time when God set this world in motion, to the end when He brings His kingdom to earth and allows us to experience the new heaven and the new earth ... God is the same. Our perceptions of Him may change throughout our lives, but this God ... the creator of all ... remains the same.

For this, I am grateful!