The Only Constant Is Change

3 Jun

“Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”  ~ Unknown

It really is true that the only constant in life is change.  While people might complain about change, there is a good reason why it is a constant in life:  it is absolutely necessary.  If an organism does not learn to adapt and change with the environment, it will soon die.  If a species does not learn to adapt and change with the environment, it will soon go extinct.  If we do not learn to adapt and change with all that comes at us in our lives, we will become stale and ineffective.

When we move to the next level in our lives, we have to become different people.  We have to add or perfect skill sets that we have not utilized before.  We have to learn new ways of doing things.  We have to interact with different groups of people.  All of this requires a fresh, new, different “you” than the you before.

The same holds true in our faith lives.  We cannot remain the same all throughout our lives. As we mature, our faith lives must mature as well.  If all we do is say the simple prayers that we learned as children, that will not be enough to feed our spiritual needs.  Along the way, we learn different ways to pray, different ways to be with the Lord, different ways to express our faith, not only in prayer but in service.

We have celebrated these past several weeks, in a very special way, the resurrection of the Lord. Our celebration should have brought us closer to God.  It should have changed us.  If we are the same people within that we were when we began Lent, we did something wrong.  We did not allow the seasons of Lent and Easter to mold us and help us change.

Perhaps we are waiting for a little extra help?  That help comes to us as we celebrate Pentecost this coming Sunday.  Jesus promised to send His Spirit to His people so that they would have the wherewithal to change as necessary.  We can count on the same Spirit to be poured out into our own lives.  All we need to do is be receptive.  Pray for the Spirit.  Pray for the grace and courage to change and become more like Christ.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

FAITH ACTION:  Ask God for the grace and courage to change into the kind of person He is calling you to be at this moment of your life.