Change
Can These Bones Live?
Were you ever part of starting something new? Maybe it was a club, or a business, or a Bible study, or even a church. You remember when there was so much energy and excitement around that new idea? You were not yet afraid of taking a risk, trying something different or thinking creatively. It was new! You were not yet burdened by policies and procedures, rules and regulations, or traditions and rituals. Not that these are bad. Each serves an important purpose. What is house without walls? What is a game without rules? So why do we lose interest when the new thing suddenly becomes an old thing? Better yet, why does the new thing become an old thing so quickly today? Here’s my guess: we are more energized by imagining the future (what could be) than by dwelling on the past (what was). We are even more energized by imagining the future than by thinking about the present (what is).
Rapid change is the new normal today. The structures we built that were life-giving yesterday, quickly become obsolete today. And it is hard to keep up, especially for the Church, which doesn’t change willingly or easily. Change is scary. The future feels unpredictable and uncontrollable. We find ourselves looking to the past for answers, for what worked back then; but they don’t fit today’s questions. I think that’s the struggle in Ezekiel 37:3, when God asks, can these bones live? Can what feels dead live again? Can what feels old be renewed? Can real change come in the lives of Christians and the in the Church? Yes! But, change is scary. Change is risky. Change is different. But isn’t that what energizes us about starting something new?
Pastor Leonard
