Connecting Points

“Don’t ever change, always stay the same! You’re perfect just the way you are!”

Those words or something like them were written in annuals or yearbooks when I

was in school.

I didn’t say they were written in my yearbook. But I did see them scribbled on some of

my friend’s pages when I was pondering what lifelong inspirational message to pen for

them. Can you imagine juniors and seniors complying with these well intended but

misguided words? How would you like to be stuck in the adolescent world and never

maturing past that awkward stage and phase of life? Very few people say when asked

that if they could return to any time or age they would choose being in high school

again. Most don’t even want to return to their college days. Why is that? Perhaps its

because they know that while their bodies were at their best, their brains and

personalities were still forming and the best was yet to be. We can admit that at times

we envy the energy children and youth have but we feel as if we now spend what

energy we have in much more productive ways. Someone observing students once

remarked that youth is wasted on the young. But with time, youth discover pursuits

worthy of them and those high octane bodies. They’ll also come to realize that it’s not

time that matters most but energy. But the irony is it takes time to discover what’s

worthy of our highest energy and eventually, what’s worthy of the limited supply we

have of it.

One of the ways we use our energy is to change. In fact, the beautiful foliage is

modeling for us how that is done right now. Changing from deep and variegated

shades of green to orange, red, brown, yellow, and gold isn’t a passive process. But it

is one that catches our attention, stops us in our tracks and takes our breath away; in a

good way. Perhaps glorious transformation is what gets our attention when we read

about people in God’s Annual called the Bible. We watch as they grow in the

knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and morph right before our

eyes. In some ways, they graduate from stuck juniors and seniors to ever changing

saints of God.

I can’t remember anything written by my friends in that 1977 annual. But I wish

someone would have said, “Don’t ever stop changing, never stay the same! Your

perfection is found in morphing who you now are, into God’s work of art.”

It’s Morphing Time!

Pastor Dean