A change is as good as a rest they say. At this time of year, many of us enjoy and look forward to change. Most of us appreciate some sunshine and perhaps some sort of summer break. Maybe we are looking forward to getting away on holiday or enjoying the excellent free activities on offer in our town. Doing things differently, having barbecues with family or friends, listening to music, enjoying the rare sunshine, eating ice cream, and enjoying nature. These out-of-the-ordinary things are good for our souls.
And yet change can often be difficult. When our life circumstances change due to illness, retirement or unemployment. When valued colleagues leave work. When we move house or others we love move away. When someone we care about dies. When workplaces introduce changes which sometimes seem to be simply for the sake of change. We may well look back wistfully, perhaps through rose-tinted glasses, and remember when times seemed better and we were happier. I wonder what changes you have had to face recently? Change is hard.
Some of us like change more than others. We get bored easily and find change to be exciting and stimulating. And yet change comes to all of us, like it or not, there is no escaping it. Inevitably children grow up and although it can be hard to admit it, we get older ourselves, and our abilities change. In the recent General Election, we have had a change of government. Maybe you are excited about this change and hopeful for the future, perhaps you are not.
My life has changed a lot over the past few years. I used to be a doctor, but I felt that God was calling me to church leadership. After a fairly rigorous process of discernment and training, I was ordained last year as a deacon and recently was ordained as a priest. I moved to King’s Lynn last year to take up my post as a curate at the Minster. The expectations and responsibilities of my new role are taking a bit of getting used to.
And yet through all these changes I have realised that the God who calls us is consistently faithful and unchanging. This holy God of love is revealed to us in the Bible. It says in the book of Malachi 3:6 ‘I the Lord do no change’. God’s character is revealed particularly through the life and death of Jesus Christ. We can be reassured that God’s love for us is constant. Things will constantly change in our lives for better or worse, but God will never change. God’s love for us is never-ending.
Fiona Munn