Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I think that most people (especially Christians) fear change. Actually, if we were honest with ourselves, the Church as a whole is probably light-years behind the rest of mainstream culture as far as adapting to change, much less creating it. That being said, I believe that we have failed miserably in our call to be a body that moves with power. We have the ultimate Creator and Administrator of change on our side! First, we must always come to a point that we can acknowledge the great work that God has done in each of our lives. He changed me from who I was into who I am and is still here helping me to become whom I was supposed to be all along. It’s not that who I am is all that great, but you should see who I was! And if He can make that change real in so many of us, then why can’t He use us, His prized creation, to be agents of change in the world? Too often we sit back and think about everything that God is done, instead of involving ourselves in all that He is yet to do!
Just about any Christian will gladly give you their conversion story, but sadly most end it at the time of Salvation. We forget that the book is still being written. There are chapters left to write. But I don’t think it is only god who holds the pin. We have a big say as to what will be written on those pages. Unfortunately, most of us are okay with the rest of society writing it for us. There is a reason why we use phrases to identify people such as “creatures of habit” or “the frozen chosen.” It’s just sad that so many of these people line the rows of our churches. And it’s a travesty that so many of these people are in church leadership positions. I’m tired of churches sitting back, doing nothing, while the community passes them by. We should be out in front, pulling the community with us! Culture is ours to create, not the worlds! We have an unending supply of power waiting to be tapped into. Yet how many Christians won’t “tap” into the power of the Spirit, because “tap” is a beer term? (Random thought for the day). In all seriousness, if we are living authentic, Christ-centered lives, then we should be drawing from this unending supply every moment of our lives. It’s called living a Spirit-led life. Unfortunately, many people dismiss such talk, calling it charismatic, because they fear what it may lead to…unpredictability.
Nassim Taleb is a researcher, mathematician and philosopher who deals with the economy and wall street. He has done tons of research in the area of predictability. He has basically theorized that life isn't as predictable as we suspect. He says that most of what happens in this world is due to random events and people making random decisions. I love his research because it shows what I suspect many Christians truly believe but are terrified by. That life isn’t a forecastable sequence of events. That there are random (or planned) events that can’t be calculated that ultimately shape the outcome of things (can you say Holy Spirit?). That we do have a say in things and life isn’t a cyclical set of predictable outcomes. Sure, there are many things in our day-to-day lives that happen like clockwork. But if we really stop to consider all of the decisions that we make in a single day, we would realize that each day can play out to be something entirely different from the last. We should be creating those “random” events that Taleb was referring to. Sure, there will still be that which is predictable as well as that which is completely out of our control, but in no way should a Christ follower be content with sitting back and letting the world fly by only to be swept up in its draft.
God is constantly moving. It is also clear that He loves to use people in the process. Additionally, Taleb is just reaffirming some of what is taught in the New Testament. Jesus taught this – so did James. Jesus tells us not to be anxious about tomorrow. James tells us to use language such as “God willing” when referring to future events. Both recognize that there is something unpredictable about the future, but it is definitely something that we need not fear! God is with us. He is there, creating change. His Church is called to be there too. As leaders, we must embrace this reality. Tomorrow is not promised to us -- this in and of itself should spur us into action. We must move to create so that the people we lead will follow suit.


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