CHANGE
CONFUSED, HOPEFUL,
ANXIOUS, NERVOUS, GRIEVING, EXPECTANT.
Researchers
say that people are more afraid of speaking in public than dying. That may be true, but I’m thinking what
people are most afraid of is change.
For example, recently our local grocery store, which had
been on the corner for over 35 years, was closed. It was replaced a block away by a mega store. Hundreds of people who never shopped in the
original store showed up and strangers replaced many of the familiar employees. Then merchandise was been expanded to include
many products no one has ever heard of. The regular neighborhood customers are not
happy. The change is too big and the
comfort of familiarity has been taken away.
No one likes starting over especially when it wasn’t your
idea in the first place Israel
was in for stupendous change when Jesus came on the scene. Jesus was the greatest agent of change the
world has ever known. The society into
which Jesus was born was insular.
Strangers were suspect, gentiles were unclean, and Samaritans were to be
avoided at all cost. Jesus’ outstretched arms welcoming everyone,
even the most despised, was shocking and dangerous. His threat to the
established way was viewed as even more perilous to those in power. Think of the courage it took for the apostles
to join him and make huge changes in their own lives. What could impel anyone to do this? The promise that the change would be good,
would make life better and would ultimately transform their world was enticing,
but it was Jesus himself that convinced them.
His message that when God said through Hosea (6:6) “I want you to show love … I want you to know me" was turning
their world upside down. And yet, the prospect of that world made better by
love convinced them.
It is the
unpalatable idea of change, which makes people resist evangelization, either as
an agent of it or the target. To
evangelize is to go outside your comfort zone and actually talk about God to
other people. Strange isn’t it? The God we depend on, who sustains us through
life, which we love sincerely, is the one topic we are afraid to broach. We have to share our own experience of the
effect of God’s love on our own lives. We
are often too concerned about ourselves; how we look, how we sound, how the
person will react to us instead of letting God speak through us. Before we begin, we have to call on the
Spirit to help us forget our ego for the moment and think only of the wonderful
thing we are offering - God’s love, which transforms lives and brings peace.
Change is
as fundamental to growth as light is to vision. Don’t fight it. Find the good in it and move forward.
Blessings
Carol Lemelin OPA
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