Finding God in the every day

Week 4 Day 7

Exodus 10;19 And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea.

            Change; the very idea flies in the face of common sense. Not so much that God would change the direction of the wind, but that there exists the real possibility of change. How hopeful, how far reaching how fraught with visions of a different possibly better life.

            Today we have whole industries devoted to “improving” the human condition. Though the courses of our lives may have been tracking in the same path or rut, we are enticed everywhere we look to try this or that idea, product or discipline to change some aspect of our lives.

            I have struggled with excessive weight for most of my adult life. Some time ago I heard a quote from an actor (Adam Driver) who was preparing for a particularly grueling role in an upcoming film. He was tasked, or had chosen to lose an excessive amount of weight and concerning his apparent success he commented that only he could control how he responded to hunger. Based upon that “truth” I began a diet regimen and over the course of several months lost a little over sixty pounds. I have since come to realize that the whole idea of physical improvement is not so much a sprint as it is a marathon and a willingness to adapt to a new lifestyle, that is hard and can be discouraging. Perhaps lifestyle is a misnomer. A better way to look at this is to adopt a new system of personal values.

            Change is something the Israelites in Egypt didn’t fully understand when they elected to follow Moses into the desert. But God was fully aware that the people, not yet really a nation were being placed in a position to choose to change. They would soon be faced with a written blueprint for the life God had ordained for a people whom he had chosen for that special privilege, a glimpse into the very heart of God.

            We are faced everyday with the idea of change. Sometimes change for the better, and sometimes a transition to something far worse. The change which the Lord Jesus invites us to receive as his blessing is “new birth”, the possibility of change (ing) and become (ing) like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)