Change Train
Image: Sugden Guy sugden on Unsplash
If change was a train, where would you be on it? Would you be at the front, looking ahead, almost straining for it, being quick to embrace the new?
Would you be at the back, resistant to the new, perhaps looking backwards at what has been, with rose tinted glasses?
May be you would be in the middle somewhere, happy with the now, slightly cautious, but open to any changes ahead, seeing how it goes, before fully buying in?
I sit somewhere in the middle of the train. I’m not an early adopter for most things. I tend to observe and consider, then when feel comfortable, I commit.
As a church leader for over 20 years, I have observed people sitting in every seat on the ‘change train’. I find it fascinating to see how they respond when change comes.
Sometimes in life, things happen abruptly that bring about change almost immediately. This is true in the book of Luke, in the New Testament.
It begins just before the birth of Jesus, telling the amazing story of the birth of John (the Baptist), a relative of Jesus…
“On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, ‘No! He is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who has that name.’ Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’”
This was a significant moment. Zechariah, a priest, had experienced a divine encounter with God in the Temple, where he had been told that his wife, Elizabeth would have a son and that they were to call him John.
Zechariah had been muted by God (hence the writing tablet) due to lack of faith and a sign of this encounter.
When it came to the circumcision naming ceremony, everyone expected that the baby would be named after his Father. But Elizabeth said no and Zechariah confirmed his name was to be John.
This name broke with traditions and was a dramatic change, much to the shock of everyone around. It was a sign that God was doing something new – preparing them for the arrival of Jesus.
God is still at work today intervening in ways we do not expect. Are you, and I, open and ready for this kind of change when it comes?
God bless you:)
Gary Bastin
Hope Community Church leader