Change

Change has been on my mind lately.

(I guess it’s hard not to ponder change in the fall, when there’s so much change around us, when the leaves are turning colors and falling from the trees, leaving their once full branches bare.)

In the current series at church, we’re talking a lot about shedding the old, losing our old ways, so we can be filled with the new way—His way.

Because this process involves change, it can be intimidating, even though we know that it’s going to be beautiful. That’s why our community group’s prayer this week was to ask for the courage to stop settling for the old when He has the NEW waiting.

A friend of mine recently shared the following blog excerpt with me. It’s from the blog 97 Seconds with God:

“I think the truth is that when we turn ourselves over to God, He doesn’t make us into someone else. He makes us into who we have always been. He amplifies the parts of us that are true. He purifies the dreams we’ve always had or the skills we’ve always used. He doesn’t turn poets into mathematicians or scientists into painters. If anything, I think He gives artists even more colors to create with, scientists even bigger labs to experiment in … I’m a writer and when I gave my life to Christ, He didn’t ask me to stop writing. In many ways, He asked me to start writing.”

I’m a slow embracer of change most of the time. But, like I told my friend, when I get past the fear, it’s exhilarating to know that slowly but surely He’s changing me into my true self, the woman He designed me to be.

Sometimes, I wonder what that woman will look like and what He’ll change next. And I feel encouraged on the days I feel uncomfortable in my own skin because I know His work is not done. I take comfort in the truth that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

And then there are those parts I already know, the parts that have always been and that He is amplifying and purifying. I thank Him for placing these on my heart, for making them part of who I am. I thank Him for my love of reading and writing, and I pray that He will use them for His glory.

Sometimes, I think about how He could use this blog if He wanted to. He can take the smallest, seemingly insignificant things and use them. So, I offer this blog to Him to use as He will. And in the meantime, I love the writing. I love the photography. I love putting my simple little entries together knowing that my heart is behind each one, the same heart He’s shaping and changing each day.