Change takes time, change happens one child at a time

We are an instant generation.

Instant coffee.

 Instant oats.

 Press-on-nails.

Microwaves.

Dishwashers.

 Fast food!

 You want it; you got it, fast, quick, easy, hassle free. It isn’t our fault really; let’s just blame it all on engineers shall we? Plastics don’t make it possible- Engineers do! They think of ways to make our lives easier – and I don’t think I would be much of a fan of going out and hunting game anyways, so I'm not mad at them.

But an instantaneous lifestyle can have a deleterious effect on many other aspects of our lives. The biggest one is Change! If things are changing, if something is happening, I want it to happen ..well kinda instantly.

And...I told you that God is doing a work in me and I was going to embrace the change?.....I have in many respects but I wanted the change a tad bit faster than he seems to be taking. It's not that I wanted him to hurry up or anything- it's just that, I wanted the change to be like those pretty press on nails. 

You see it, you like it, you order it, it comes in the mail, you pull it out, match it to your fingers, and voila! Nicely manicured fingernails with minimal effort that still lasts about the same time as a professionally done job. It's not like I put zero effort into it, it's just that there wasn't this huge hassle.

Life changes in God, takes often this term I Do Not even want to say out loud - Long Suffering!

I came across a most delightful insight by C.S.Lewis, and it was an instant screenshot - yup- instant again! No need for exercising that brain with memorizing!- another downside of instantaneous lifestyle.

When I read it I said- yup- so true! And a big construction project such as rebuilding a life from the ruins of sin - takes time, real time and slapping on a coat of paint is like putting on a band aid on a surgical wound! It just doesn't make sense. 

As I looked into the eyes of a broken child today, who said, all his life he had been told that he was dumb, and he stopped believing he could learn anything; so he instead wasted time and misbehaved in class- I knew. I understood. Change.

Change. Takes. Time.

When I said to him, " they lied to you, " "anyone who told you you were dumb, lied to you." Something happened to his eyes that I have yet to put into words. But his entire countenance changed and for a moment, he believed. Me.

But..........

It's not just that change is hard or that as humans we don't like change. It's that change takes a long time, for most of us and for most situations. The hardest part is that our mind carries a memory of our former life and deeds and it makes a habit of never letting us forget. It stands in the doorway of change. A gatekeeper that says - no! You are not worthy to come in! You are too dumb to learn, you are too much of a sinner for God to love you. You....can't go speak to the boss! 

You are a murderer and your people know and they won't accept you as one to 'save' or free them - so, you look at the master of change and say - I'm not worthy, I can't change my story, they won't want me! I can't speak, I can't.....But ...................... that voice..............it's lying to you too!

Moses left from a palace to a desert. That's a Big change, it's a change that I'm sure at first, he must have taken some time to adjust to, I'm sure he had resigned himself to a life of a husband of keeper of the sheep; he wouldn't have expected this change to lead to his life's purpose. He needed his desert experience, so that he could succeed at his wilderness journey with the people he was born to free.

God's ways?...Not our ways...God seems to like things to be authentic - if your purpose is to lead people to a promised land through a wilderness - he's going to give you a little working experience first.

Joseph? He had a big change too! His change was of the grandest kind - both in his ascension and descent. From palace to prison and back to save a people!

The voice says, it's going to take too long.

The voice says, no one will believe you

The voice says, you can never really change

The voice says, you will be back to your old self in no time and I'll be waiting to say I told you so!

The voice says, even though others did it, doesn't mean you can

The voice says, stay with me, I love you just the way you are

But that's only half the battle...to wrestle against the flesh and the spirit...

A spiritual change that calls for newness, a new creature. A new creation. In Christ.

2 Corinthians 5; 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away: behold,all things have become new. 

And so now you understand just what C. S. Lewis was saying, a new creature is being build at the same time that an old structure is standing. So the change cannot be instant,at least not everything. And I've seen renovations of old houses, the builder works from the inside out, he painstakingly removes walls, windows, doors, grills, but he is careful to keep the supporting walls and beams and then he gradually makes his way to the outside, and many times when the structure is finished, it's unrecognizable! And that's how God works- he changes from the inside out, because putting paint on an old house does make it look a little better but it's still just an old house with fresh paint. Everything inside, is still falling apart.

So that moment when someone tells you that you can, when all your life you have been told that you can't.........believe them! It's possible to see lasting change but it won't be instant and try as they might - engineers can't make it possible!

So my challenge is to make change for a child say......

Yes, you can 

Yes, you will

Yes, it is possible..............even also for me.........

But you must believe who God says you are and no other voice that says otherwise - not even your own- and that's a change that takes time, for you have to live with your own voices....

but this promise......1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

A call to action.....Save one child that is not your own, let them know who God says that they are.

Readings Exodus 2-5