Change happens. Usually when we aren’t ready for it; sometimes when we crave it; always when we choose it.
How we change, or who we change to, isn’t dictated by the inevitability of change. The direction of our change flows from us……or does it?
I guess that depends on you.
Many of us don’t like change, and at times actually resist it; we may still feel an inner restlessness. Something isn’t working anymore. Something has to change.
We need it to.
So…
How To Change A Life – In Our Own Strength
There are some tangible things we actual can control to change and move forward:
Our routines. A “routine” can resist change or map out change. It is a tool. It’s in how we use it. Analyze your routine, find the sticking points:
What do you want in life? What is God calling you to? What isn’t working anymore?
To discover what you want to be different is the first step of change. It is a big step that some people get stuck on and stay stuck. Stuck is resistance. You may not want to hear that, but it is.
External Changes. Change can happen in many ways. We can change our geography. Some relationships need to work differently.
Job, career, or calling are worlds apart.
Or maybe, probably, the change is with you.
A Blank Slate. Starting with a blank slate seems impossible. Years of collecting life can’t be dismantled.
I agree.
Changed Life or New Life
But a changed life that starts with the old, may find barriers and detours along the way. Or we may currently be heading in the wrong direction and who wants to build on that.
A clean canvas can represent a new season. In places outside of Louisiana, seasons look very different. Drop all of your fall leaves, clean your internal home to the sparse state of winter and imagine your new fresh canvas of spring.
I can change habits. I can change my wardrobe. I can change my house or my career. But does any of that change a life?
We can all make changes to our external world. We can all enjoy a new season. But, is this really new? Is this changing a life?
External Change is Not Life Transformation
I believe in new seasons. I also create a lot of plans and directions for my life. Through my own youthful efforts I have grown a career, created a family, checked off many goals and objectives. God gave me interests and ambition and in some cases great discipline.
I worked on life for decades. No matter what destiny I sought or course correction I made, holistically my life didn’t change. I still focused on the world and its measures.
The Only Way To New Life
Ultimately change, or real life transformation only came through one source. The One who gives life is the only source to change of life.
I could get to the desolate winter on my own. I could rapidly cycle through the seasons of life consistently letting the fresh, colorful blooms of spring slip fleetingly into hot, sticky summer. And then actually shed my habits, work friends, leading me back to a winter wasteland.
During a really harsh winter of my life I stopped running and started seeking. I wanted…..I needed a new life. I needed a sustainable path. I looked for the right way. Where I wore myself out and finally stopped….tired and burned out…new life found me.
The way to transform
to become a new creature
to true lasting purpose
The only way (to change a life)
Yahweh.
Through Christ we are transformed to who we are made to be. Seek Him. Chase Him. Rest in Him.
Find a new you.
