Time for change
Down
in London a couple of months ago I was walking past a gym and noticed
the wording on the advertising board outside: ‘If it doesn’t
challenge
you, it doesn’t change
you’. And I wondered as I strolled on: ‘Is that true? Really?’
Well,
maybe it is. We might think we love change, find change very easy. We
might chase after novelty, always wanting some new, different,
better, shiny thing. But getting new things doesn’t change who we
are. It just changes the stuff we have around us - in our cupboards,
on our shelves, in our display units. Once the first excitement has
died down, which it usually does pretty quickly, new stuff doesn’t
mean new self.
I
guess on the whole we like to be comfortable, settled in our minds,
our emotions on an even keel. We don’t like to be unsettled or
upset. But staying in our comfort zones doesn’t challenge us. And
it doesn’t change us. And most of us could do with making some
changes – myself included.
I
heard someone on the radio last week talking about how they’d
reached a significant birthday and made a resolution to try some new
thing (I think it was a new thing every week) right through the year.
It might have been a new thing every day, or maybe every month. But
whichever way, it would be a challenge.
I
wonder what new things they will try: taste new food, visit strange
places, talk to strangers in the queue, pray, smile at neighbours, go
to the opera, try hang-gliding, turn up at church, risk some random
acts of kindness? And see what happens? Any or all of these could be
challenging, difficult, even dangerous.
What
will you do this new year? Will it challenge you? Will it change you?
Happy
New Year everyone.
Love
Rev’d Lorna
PS
We’re making some small changes at church this year: starting in
January, ‘Breathe’ at Nocton with move to the first Sunday of the
month, and church4ALL at Potterhanworth will move to the second and
fourth Sundays. You’ll be welcome.
