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The Only Constant Is Change

Posted Nov 30 2010 by Jonathan Brink in , with 12 Comments

Where is God calling you to let go? A friend of mine recently retweeted the following, the first part of which I’ve heard many times.

“The only constant is change. When I submit to that reality, creativity and passion float to the surface.”

And the comment made me think about the nature of change embedded into the universe.  God didn’t begin with perfect.  God began with good.  But it’s easy to assume that what is good can’t change.  If it’s good, why on earth would it want to change. But that’s the rub.  Good is a qualitative state that does just that.  It allows for change.  In other words, God embedded into the world a natural creativity that allowed for things to grow and change, which then allows for a constant stream of creativity, as opposed to something static.  Because I can imagine if we did begin perfect, we’d spend the rest of our lives not wanting to change. And that is honestly the epitome of hell to me.

Which leads me to the nature of grace.  What if grace is embedded into change? What if the very nature of change reveals the reality of grace.  In other words, God has already gotten over all of our junk.  Because in the end change has consequences, some good and some bad.  It does affect us but none of it defines us.    And the sooner we let go of our judgments about it, the sooner we can get over it, embracing the reality of grace.

Buddhists have a very similar understanding of the creativity and change embedded into their practice of meditation.  In meditation, the deepest form of it is the free flowing mind, to empty the mind of thought.  But the emptiness is not a void.  It’s the process of allowing the mind to experience and let go of the thought process.  And I was thinking it’s essentially the practice of grace.

I looked at my son tonight and realized that as much as I love him at this age, I don’t really want him to stay this age.  I want him to grow and change.  I want him to experience the fullness of life that comes from growing, pain, suffering, joy, challenge and overcoming. I want him to know the feeling of not getting the job, kissing the girl for the first time, failing a test, and getting down on his knee to ask a girl to marry him.  But he can only experience that if I let go of who he is now.  I want him to feel the full range of emotions that come from being human.

But then I was immediately hit with the same reality for myself, and then my family, and then my neighbor, and then…my enemy.  How much of life is dealing with the frustrations with wanting things not to change.  How much of our striving, wars, conflict and the worst that we have to offer is because we’re afraid of what’s next, or we’re trying to get to something that we once had.  And it captivates us with fear because no matter how much we try, we can’t get it back.

So it seems to that the risk God took with the world is to allow us to grow, and that growth is the fullest experience of grace.  What say you?

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About the Author

Jonathan BrinkI am an business development and communications consultant. I am also the senior editor and publisher for Civitas Press. I recently published, Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole, New Christianity. (Civitas, 2011)View all posts by Jonathan Brink →

  • David

    Sounds good to me Jonathan ! I think however that as you said some change is good and some is bad, and I also want to evaluate it to see where improvements can be had along the way. rnrnJudgement can lead to change and is an integrated part of it many times. Is God Grace involved ? I believe it is in many ways. In what we discover, how we react, and the resulting consequences. So I agree with you in many ways.rnrnChange is really hard many times as we seek comfort and change makes us uncomfortable.

  • http://lisamamula.blogspot.com/ Lisa

    It makes sense to me to view growth as a vehicle for experiencing grace. Growth is messy. Your parenting analogy is very useful to me here. My daughter is almost 3, and the process of watching her grow up, of helping her learn about the world and how things work, helping her become more independent and to manage her emotions properly… It’s exhausting, but it has been the most joyful, rewarding experience of my life. nnAnd it is absolutely a continual process, in which my role is to guide and shape and help, but most of all to remain loving and supportive. nnHow much more, then, can I see God in this role, guiding and supporting through the organic, wonderful, chaotic process of growth? He didn’t create mankind as we are now; we have become what we are through thousands of years of growth and change, supported by God’s grace. And individually, if we are actively engaged in pursuing our faith, if we are seeking God, we are still growing and developing, and therefore still needing God’s guidance and grace.

    • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

      Lisa, part of what made me think about this in regards to my son is that I love this space he is in. It’ not conflict. It’s deep joy. And that creates kind of a counter intuitive issue with growth. Something grace means letting go of what produces joy. And I’m not assuming its going to get worse. I’m just not sure its going to get any better, which then limits me to what is possible.nnThanks for replying.

  • http://paradigmshift-jmac.blogspot.com/ Joe Machuta

    I definitely believe that growth is one of the main goals of our existence. 1Jn 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” This passage speaks of the change. While many believe this is speaking of an after life end time promise; I see it as the promise of the ongoing change of becoming good… good being an ever forward change.n

    • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

      I would go back to the beginning Joe, which be fruitful and multiply. Part of the gardening process includes a cycle of seasons, and change. Something has to die in order to reveal something new. It’s what gets me about the “perfect” idea. It just doesn’t exist in the order of nature.

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    What’s intriguing to me is that without change it is in our nature to get bored. Which makes the prospect of what we’ll be doing in God’s eternal kingdom even more exciting.

    • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

      I like that Josh. NT Wright and some others have said, Heaven is not going to be harps. Its going to be work, to be fruitful and multiply.

  • http://www.livinginabeautifulmess.blogspot.com Cheryl Ensom Dack

    Your next book, maybe?? :) rnrnThere’s something BIG there, for sure. We have a picture book that I love that tells the creation story in a different way: God is “the artist” and he creates this amazing piece of art. But you’ve got me thinking because creativity is such a huge part of my life AND I am historically pretty resistant to change. I want to know the bottom isn’t going to drop out up ahead. I’ve gone to some pretty great lengths to try to control that not happening. It never goes very well. rnrnFor me, my fear of/resistance to change is because I’m afraid I won’t be loved. If I change, others will stop loving me. If the other guy changes, they won’t love me anymore. It’s all pretty simple and basic. But the irony here is that when I don’t let others change, for fear they will stop loving me, I am communicating that if THEY change I won’t love THEM! Crazy. And that is of course the very definition of “conditional love.” It loves….IF.rnrnI’ve experienced this A LOT in my years in the evangelical church. Expressing doubt, new thought, etc. was not o.k. if it meant that I ended up in a place that was different from the foundational theological/doctrinal truths of Christianity. So I tried NOT to think or feel for a long time. I’d then finally have enough, get real and scare the crap out of people. And I’d get rejected/judged. So after awhile (not long) I’d rush back and try to embrace all the Christian stuff again because of fear of being unloved by those I wanted love from…and God, too.rnrnBut I’ve finally figured out that I can’t do that anymore. I have to be ME. That means I change. Period. That’s not bad. That’s good! That means I’m growing. I’m moving. I’m learning. Those who love me through those changes are the real deal. And I am learning to allow others to change, too, even though it scares me to death. And there’s that same irony comes into play I described above. When I don’t let fear cause me to run at the slightest hint of “unlove”/rejection from the other person, I find that some people DO love me, even when I change. I find that when I push through my fear and love the other person AS they change, they experience real love from me. rnrnSo I guess I’m saying that I think that without change, you can’t have unconditional love. That’s a pretty big deal.

    • David

      Hi Cheryl, I really like this

    • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

      I like that Cheryl. Love allows for change.

  • Katiejosuddaby@gmail.com

    This is really helpful to me, Jonathan. This summer I’m doing an internship as a hospital chaplain. Many of the patients on my units are having a hard time dealing with the huge life changes their illnesses will cause them. Some get nostalgic. Some get angry at others who are powerless to undo the change. And others take the opportunity to reevaluate and move in a direction they wouldn’t have thought of without their illness. As their chaplain, it’s hard to help them accept change. But as I was thinking about your blog, I had this comforting thought: if the nature of the world is constant change, then their current state of pain will also change. Just like change landed them in the hospital without warning, so change will cone without warning and get them out into a different stage. This thought was really helpful to me and I hope it is helpful to my patients too.

    • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

      I like that Katie.u00a0 That is comforting.

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