Changes Part 2

Sometimes change is hard to deal with, sometimes we resist changing something about ourselves, or we are not happy with changes around us.

We become stuck in a rut, and we like it there, because we feel safe in familiar territory.

OK, we may feel safe, but there are hazards to resisting change.

We can become narrow minded for one thing, we want things the way WE want them, and it doesn't matter what someone else thinks.

There is no challenge in staying in the same place, we limit our potential for learning and growth.

Sometimes, though we may resist, God pushes in a direction we do not want to go, and our world will change forever. It shakes us up, wakes us up, and we change in ways we didn't expect or didn't think we even needed.

Imagine what would happen if a mother robin didn't push her babies from the nest. They would end up crippled, unable to leave and stuck there, unable to even feed themselves until they slowly starved to death. Not a pretty picture.

The mother pushes the baby out of the nest for a purpose, so they can learn how to fly!

That's what God does to us, He pushes us from our own self made nests.

Thank God He does!

When I lived in Pennsylvania, for the last few years there, I really felt stuck. Oh, I had my family, I had my home, a job, friends. But I was in a rut, with no direction, no real life, just existing day in and day out. In some ways I felt like I was suffocating with boredom, in other ways I felt starved. I didn't know what I was longing for though, something unnamed, something that I couldn't see.

Then something big happened.

God pushed me out of my nest. And I landed here in N. Carolina.

I admit it, I didn't want to move here. Even though my heart longed for something more in my life, I was so used to my rut, I was safe in my rut, I didn't have to force myself to make hard decisions, I could stay in my shy little shell, and just exist.

But God wanted more for me.

And my life has been changed.

Ironically, when I was in that rut, even though a big part of me wanted to stay there, I also prayed for whatever was missing.

God answered that in a big way.

My life has changed. I don't think I would have grown and changed in the ways I have if I would have remained there.

When we did arrive here, I was so scared. I didn't know anyone at all, I didn't have a job, I got lost on several occasions trying to find my way around town, which was really scary since I didn't know anyone I could call for help or directions.

But over the course of the last twenty months, God has really worked in my life.

Of course, I have had a lot of bad moments. Not too long ago, I wrote a post on my previous blog which reflected all my doubts, all my fears, my loneliness, my depression, everything.

Yesterday, in church someone stated (because of something that happened in the church which I will get to in my next post), that when a spiritual awakening is about to happen, satan gets shook up and opposes it in one form or another.

Satan was bombarding me with all kinds of bad thoughts and feelings.

But the harder he lambasted me, the more I turned to God, the more I prayed in desperation. I prayed so hard, I think my knees bled. I cried out to God, and when I didn't have words, the Spirit cried out for me.

And I was rescued from despair.

God doesn't want us to stay in the same place, He wants us to learn how to fly. He wants us to grow and learn, He wants us to use all our gifts and talents to our full potential.

And I don't think He is done with me yet!

Who knows where He may lead me next?

But now I know that I can embrace change, it's not the bad thing that so many make it out to be.