I am sitting on the cusp of another addition to my family. Montana is 38 weeks pregnant as I write this, and she is understandable ready to be done: August heat and all. Baby number 4's gender is unknown per usual with the Harrises, and we are preparing to navigate the changes involved and do the baby thing yet again.
It’s the deep breath before the plunge.
Something about big changes rattles me a bit. Growing up, I only moved one time, and that was when I was young. I attended the same school from Kindergarten through 12th grade. I attended my church from early childhood to the present, albeit with a college hiatus in the middle. As a child this continuity was good and provided me much security. I knew where I belonged and had an established network of support which I am very thankful for.
I have since noticed in myself, however, a general aversion and reluctance towards change in general, good changes included. It is safe to say I am not your risky early adapter. The way I see it, if you have a good thing going for you, you keep that good thing! Don't deviate, you keep riding that good thing through to the bitter end. With this reserve, it is interesting how the Lord has seen fit to give me a slew of changes in recent years: marriage 7 years ago (to a wife who likes change, of course), 4 children in 6 years, 3 moves in 6 years, and a few job changes to boot.
You may think that sounds perfectly reasonable, but to me it is substantive.
Life is full of significant changes we must walk through: the change from childhood to adulthood, the transition from dependence to independence, the entering into positions of responsibility and leadership. There are the joyous family changes of marriage and new children, as well as the sorrowful changes tragedies and loss bring. Then come the changes of aging: illnesses, the diminution of former ability, the loss of youthful energy--all leading up to that culmination when death shall bring our change.
The whole of human existence is one of mutability and continual alteration, and yet these significant markers that stand above the rest.
Change forces us look to God
In each major alteration there is an opportunity for us to break our self-reliance and look to God. These big changes have a way of shattering those least resistance patterns we fall into day after day, patterns we are familiar with because they are so easy. It's not that these rhythms are bad, for some they can be seasons of much productivity, but they often provide an illusion of safety and control. When faced with a period of prolonged stability, we become comfortable to continue in it. And why wouldn’t we? Things are going well, after all, and we are not stressed or frantically re-evaluating how we are going to make it. We are not forced to ask God for help in the midst of our business as usual peace. We are accustomed to it and we know what to expect: “we have made it thus far and we will continue in the same way.” Since it has been working well we naturally think it will continue to work this same way.
Then comes some changes. In my case they are in the form of: a few children, a few years of COVID shutdown and telework, a death in the family and a level of grief previously unknown. Comfortable norms fall to pieces, and I am left to react and move and adjust somehow. So, I look to God. The situation demands I look to God. My own ability is powerless to contend with the disruptions, and I don’t know what else to do.
Both the good and the bad changes we face are opportunities to trust God in faith; chances to put that faith we talk about so much to use.
Change help bridge the gap
There is such a gap between knowledge and action, between profession and practice. I remember very early on in my marriage not at all feeling like helping my wife do something. I think it was the dishes. The feelings were nowhere to be found and I had a thought: "I really should help her." After all we are called to love one another as Christ has loved us, to have the mind of Christ which sacrifices and serves, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you--things I have known since I was in the nursery. But how wide is that distance between knowing "die to yourself" conceptually and actually dying to your self in that moment? Here was a very small instance to practice exactly what I had studied, memorized, taught, and plumbed intellectually. You could hardly ask for a smaller way to serve than doing some dishes, but how hard is it to follow through! The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
The theory is quite fascinating, compelling even; but the actual doing, that is hard.
Big changes are like this. They are catalysts to bridge the knowledge / practice gap and exercise faith at new heights. It is written, “My God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory”--a most standard Christian belief. You have heard the promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The concept is comforting, and the verses are nice, but here in cold reality a large disruption has met you: A call from the doctor with an unexpected diagnosis, a layoff notification, an unforeseen conflict. Now is the opportunity to see what you really believe.
With every life change we are presented an opportunity to take the basic truths we may have known our entire lives and 1) hold on to them for everything they are worth and 2) watch the Lord meet our need. Either God is true to what He says, or He is not. Either God will supply all of my needs as I walk in obedience, or God lied. You can either rest in these promises or you can reject them; either move forward in faith and hope, or murmur in unbelief and fear. What will it be?
Besides, what was the point of learning those verses for all those years if their substance is ignored when their power is needed the most?
Change allows us to experience provision
If that happy convenience of the normal continued, you would never have had this opportunity to practice your faith. There would be no pressing reason to look to God because things would have remained quite well and good. Perhaps worse yet, had life continued with all the quietude of a calm sea, you would have missed experiencing the Lord's provision in your need, for there would have been no occasion for it! Another words, there would have been a blessing you would have missed if you had you not gone through the discomfort and disruption you did. The promise would not be confirmed through your experience, your faith would not be stretched and proven, and all those verses and concepts would have remained theoretical. It was the change and subsequent dire need which allowed you to experience the salvation of your God, your lack the occasion to receive His supernatural supply.
Although we can’t peer into every reason why God’s providence unravels as it does, we can be assured that every disruption has a specific purpose and will work out for our good. In every change--the good, the bad, and the ugly--let us then hold fast to the promises and watch the Lord provide, for He faithful will remain.
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“‘Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s will to give you a kingdom.’ Hence the believing soul argues from the lesser to the greater. What! Will God deny daily bread, that will give me heaven, and raise me up to life everlasting?”
- Richard Sibbes, The Life of Faith