7th October - Everything's Changing

 Everything’s Changing

Written by Andrew Norrie, Youth Worker

Change is everywhere, it’s one of life’s certainties. Yet for many of us, change makes us feel uncomfortable, fills us with worry and what it will mean for us. For others change doesn’t bother them, they embrace it with both hands and jump straight in.

 

I personally find myself in the middle of these two attitudes. On one hand, I love new opportunities and exploring new ways of doing things. Yet on the other, I dislike the uncertainty and I spend hours worrying about how that may look for us. One of the biggest changes I love is to see the change God makes in the lives of each and every young person I get the pleasure of working with.

 

Over the last few weeks, we have experienced that late September heatwave that ushers us into the winter. Within hours it felt like we had gone from shorts and t-shirt weather to woolly hats and jumpers. I don’t know about you but this is one of those changes that catches me off guard every year despite the fact we know it’s coming.

 

This year however there’s something slightly different about this seasonal change from Summer to Winter. The usual hustle and bustle of getting ready for a new season with our organisations. Meeting the new Year 8’s and New P1’s whilst catching up with everyone else isn’t there. Instead, we are facing a change of a different kind. Restrictions are being tightened and that hope we had of getting back to a sense of ‘normality’ are slowly slipping away from us.

 

Change is coming, but for many of us, we worry about what that will be for our daily lives.

 

This year has been one of many changes for all of us, we have learnt a new way of existing. For many of us, we have got to grips more and more with the use of technology, some of us have enjoyed the more relaxed carefree days and most of you enjoyed the 5 months of no school. Others will have had the opposite reactions.

 

One thing that has impressed me from we had to close our doors to physical programmes has been the resilience of you guys. Our young people. You have made us all so proud of you in how you have handled everything that has been thrown at you.

 

As I now turn my mind to the next few months I wonder what other change lies ahead of us. At the end of the road we know will be the return to in-person programmes, we just don’t know when that will be. But we walk in the knowledge that it will come and the hope that it will be soon.

 

That thought reminds me of this verse in Hebrews 11:1,

 

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

 

Just like we can hold on to that reality of being back together again playing ridiculous games and eating bags and bags of Doritos. (Other crisps are available) Our current reality is we cannot see it but we know it is coming. So to do we know that the Kingdom of God is coming, that day when we meet him face to face is on its way. Just like the end of lockdown, we don’t know when it will happen but we know it will.

 

The question is are we ready? If not what are we doing to be ready? If we are then how do we ensure we stay ready?

 

The biggest change that will ever occur in our lives is that change when we accept Christ into our hearts and become a Christian.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

 

Being a Christian involves many changes. Changes to how we act, think and even who we hang around with. The Bible tells us our old person has gone and the new has come. We have been changed from the inside out.

 

As we head into this new season, as different and uncertain as it may be. What are the changes you need to make? What are the areas that need a fine-tune?

 

When it feels difficult remember these words from 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18:

 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

Over the next few weeks and months when you feel downhearted, remember this. What we have now is only temporary better days are coming. Just like our time on earth one day we will get to walk in eternity with our creator.

 

Remember, Change can be good, we just need to embrace it.