Each year, as the seasons change and summer gives way to autumn, and once again, autumn gives up its’ life to winter, I can’t help but think about change. How inevitable it is. How sometimes sweet, and sometimes bitter it is. Without change, transition from one state of being to another, life would not go on. Trees would not grow. Seeds would not drop to the ground and germinate to produce new life. None of the beauty of nature would have a chance to blossom without the winds of change.
During this, my favorite season of change, as the bitter-sweet beauty of autumn leads into the cold – gray, rest of winter, I am reminded of the changes we must go through in order to grow and bring forth fruit as well. Without change we don’t move ahead ~ we stagnate ~ we exist, but we don’t really live. Take time during this season of transition to ask God how He wants you to change. Is He asking you to take on a new career? Is he asking you to change your attitude toward your family or friends? Is the “status quo” good enough for you, or for God? Perhaps not.
As you think about the change that is so evident in nature these brisk fall days, take a look at these words from some prominent individuals, and recognize that change is good. Change means new life. Change means growth and without growth, nothing of beauty or value endures. Only God never changes, because He is always and forever, perfection. Every time you see a tree or bush this autumn, transformed into a flaming fire of reds, yellows and golds, ask God how He wants to change you. What transition, what metamorphosis from one season to another is in His plan for you this year? Have the courage to say “yes.” Change – it is inevitable – it is essential to growth – it is the fuel of life!
Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?
Everything changes but change itself.
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Wherever we are, it is but a stage on the way to somewhere else, and whatever we do, however well we do it, it is only a preparation to do something else that shall be different.
To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.
When you’re through changing, you’re through.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
I am the LORD, and I do not change. Malachi 3:6
I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
