Congratulations to Shane and Mitzi. They were married on Saturday, June 6.
And Happy Birthday to her as well.
------------------------------------------------------------
Our new Sunday night study is titled "Fresh Start." Obviously, my sister's wedding symbolizes a new beginning, too. It's a new phase of life with new visions and expectations. So, naturally, I started thinking about "new" and "fresh" as the topic of the day and tried to let God lead my thoughts about the whole subject.
I thought about the times in my own life when I started out on a new path. Times when I forced the old things to change into a new life, a clean slate. And I thought about people in my life who face those decisions about new directions.
I have always looked at change in the positive. Change is good, new directions, new missions to undertake, blah, blah, blah. But I think I have been wrong about that alot.
Change is good. Change is bad.
There's no all-encompassing, across the board viewpoint when it comes to fresh starts. Just because something is new and exciting doesn't mean it's good. Just because something appears to be a cure-all solution doesn't make it the obvious choice.
Everything must be weighed with God's wisdom. I believe that the litmus test for these crossroad decisions is simple: Will it make me better, will it lead me closer to God?
For instance, my sister's new marriage is great. Shane has been a wonderful influence in her life. He's a super guy with a friendly, peaceful demeanor and he'll bend over backward for you. Mitzi has been much happier since meeting him. They attend church together and their beliefs match up.
Then there's Spenarah (sorry if this embarrasses you but your helping me to make my point). They will be attending a new college this year. I'm thrilled to have them close to home again. It wasn't a smooth transition, they faced some opposition but now that it's a done deal I sense that they are at peace with their decision and their ministries and involvement at church have been, and will be stronger and more effective. But I will miss driving up to see dear, sweet Edna.
So it's easy to see God in these things. He leads us to changes sometimes that we don't see coming but give us new purpose. Scratch that. Not so much a new purpose but a renewed purpose that builds on where we have been and strengthens our sphere of influence.
But what about the other side of the coin? Sometimes we make those decisions that take us the other way. We decide that it's just time for something different because we're bored or in a slump or not really feeling God that much. We find all kinds of reasons to justify making a move by putting it in God's lap and changing everything around us, when we should stop and see that the changes need to be made within us. I've done this many times. I've told myself that it's natural to drift away from the friends I have and my ministries at church. My work here is done, God has led me to new things, I've been "called" to something else. It's easy to be led away and follow self, follow the world, or follow someone else.
All I'm saying is that some new paths are good, but some are not. Some are temptations to lead us away. Some are from God and some are from the Deceiver. Society these days has too many choices. We are programmed to look at all our options and choose the one that's best for us. But we don't always know what's best. We just think we do.
But taking the time to seek God's wisdom and count the cost is foolproof. If we let Him guide us based on what He wants, not what we think He would want if we were God, then the number of choices and the confusion will diminish.
God isn't a chess player. We aren't pawns in a strategy.
I hope this helps someone in the days to come.
