Change is a strange thing. Sometimes we
ask for it. Sometimes we resist it.
Sometimes it arrives whether we’re ready
or not.
And we’ve all known a fair bit of change
recently.
As a church, we’ve known it deeply. After
28 years of Simon’s faithful ministry,
suddenly: no more. That is no small thing.
A chapter closes, and however ready or
unready we may feel, a new one begins.
And we’ve known it too. On 15th April, we
began this new season at St John’s. It has
been a real joy to arrive. We’ve been
welcomed warmly and looked after so
generously. I think it’s fair to say the
vicarage itself has also known a season of
change. There has been so much work
done that if houses could speak, ours
might politely ask for a lie down.
Change can be exciting. But it can also be
unsettling. New routines, new faces, new
questions, new unknowns. Most of us
know the feeling. A first day at school. A
house move. A new job. That slightly
disorientating moment when you open
the kitchen drawer in someone else’s
house and have absolutely no idea where
they keep the teaspoons.
And yet, one of the things I’ve found most
encouraging in all of this is that God
himself says,
“I the Lord do not change”
(Malachi 3:6)
That is not a small comfort. It means that
in a world where so much shifts, there is
someone who does not. God’s character
does not wobble. His love does not thin
out. His faithfulness does not depend on the mood of
the moment. He is steady, good, entirely dependable
and radically loving.
But here’s the Christian twist: the God who does not
change is not distant or inactive — he is committed
to doing us good. Yes, God does not change. But
precisely because he is faithful and loving, he is
committed to changing us.
The Bible speaks of God as the one “who began a
good work in you” and who will carry it on to
completion (Philippians 1:6). He has gone to great
lengths in Jesus to make that happen.
That’s part of the hope of the Christian faith. God does
not simply help us cope with change—he meets us in
it, works through it, and uses it. He is patient enough
not to leave us as we are.
And that is good news, because if we are honest, most
of us don’t just need our circumstances to change
from time to time—we need changing too. Or, as
another part of the Bible puts it, God is at work
to “transform” us from the inside out (2 Corinthians
3:18).
So as we begin this new chapter together at St John’s,
my prayer is not simply that we would manage change
well, but that we would come to know more deeply the
God who never changes—and discover that he is
gently, faithfully at work changing us.
Which, when you think about it, is exactly the kind of
change worth having.– Tom