originally published on 05.13.17
Boxes everywhere. The house is disheveled. Packing for what seems like forever, and yet it seems like there's always more. More transitions. More change. New things are coming fast and right now there's a number of uncertainties.
For the most part, I'd say I'm someone who enjoys change. There are always hard changes that come up, yes, but for the most part I'm someone who gets excited about the future before being fearful about it. I love upcoming opportunities for adventure. (Sometimes to a fault because then it causes me to be bored with the present, but I digress. That's not the point here.)
I'm officially done with a full year of campus ministry in a new state with a new staff team, and I've had the time of my life. (cue Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes)
Now it's summer ("summer".. "summer".. #HSM2shoutout) and with that comes a bunch of travel. #NomadLife. I'll be road-tripping from Virginia to Pennsylvania, up to New Hampshire for six weeks, back to PA for a week or so, fly out to Colorado for a week, then back to PA & road-trip back down to Virginia.
One of the uncertainties of life is that I currently don't know where I'll be living once I get back from all the crazy travel. So.. that's a thing. Also, what's in store for this summer? How is God going to use the Summer Mission I'll be staffing in NH? Which students will I get to pour into? What will they be like? What will my routine look like while I'm traveling all over God's green earth? Did I forget anything when I packed all of my other belongings away?
With all of this in mind, something I'm thankful for amidst of all the change is God's constancy. I've been working my way through Jen Wilkin's None Like Him, which is saturated with great truth from Scripture about 10 attributes of God - attributes that are only true of Him.
In the chapter on God's immutability, Jen talks about how we can't truthfully use words like "always" or "never" to describe ourselves or other people. That hit me harrrrd, especially being someone who finds it difficult to be consistent or disciplined in what seem to be the simplest of things.
"When we apply the terms always or never to other people, we speak an untruth. Human beings don't always or never anything. We just aren't that consistent. We frequently, we fairly regularly, we often or habitually, but we do not always or never. As finite and mutable creatures, we cannot lay claim to these terms, either as pejoratives or as praise. They can only truly be spoken of God."
Like I said, this really hit home and made me have those thoughts of "oh man, that's true. I'm not consistent. I can't be perfectly disciplined like I'd like to be." That could be kind of a downer. But at the same time it freed me up to shift my glance off of myself and onto a God who is perfectly consistent.
I can use "always" and "never" when it comes to God.
He always comes through, even if the timing is different than what I'd like.
He never loses His faithfulness. He never changes. He's always the same.
He always delivers. Always restores. Never stops pursuing the broken.
His character is consistent. Always reliable.
How refreshing is that? To know that in whatever stage of my life, whatever circumstance, I can say that God is loving, faithful, steadfast, etc., and those statements will always be true.
Jen also quotes Psalm 18:31 in this chapter:
"For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?"
This reference made me think of the song "Rest in You" from All Sons and Daughters' Poets & Saints album (highly recommend). The song begins with lyrics derived from this verse. ( take a listen here & meditate on its truth! )
The bridge of the song repeats the line "You cannot change, yet you change everything." This line plays over and over in my earbuds as I think about God's immutability and my heart reflects, "this is so true." God does not change, yet He has changed my whole life. My whole identity. My whole eternity.
The next verse in Psalm 18 says, "...the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights." (it goes on from there - read it for yourself! pray through it. journal through it.)
I can not only trust in the consistency of God in the middle of my ever-changing life & daily circumstances, I can also trust that the change that He's made (and continues to make) in my life is certain, and my position in Him is secure and protected.
I'll leave you with this last thought from Jen:
"Because He does not change, we can rely on the unchanging truth of Scripture. What He pronounces as sin will always be sin. What He pronounces as good will always be good. All that He has promised to do must come to pass. The Gospel itself is bound up in the idea of God's immutability. We fervently need God to stay the same - our great hope of salvation lies in His remaining exactly as who He says He is, doing exactly what He says He will do. As long as His infinite sameness endures, He will not change His mind about setting His love on us. We can not commit a future sin that will change His verdict, because His verdict was passed with every sin past, present, and future fixed in view. Whom God pronounces righteous will always be righteous. Nothing we could do can remove from us the seal of His promised redemption. Nothing can separate us from the unfailing, unchanging love of this great God, the Rock of our salvation upon which the house of our faith is built."
Are you experiencing some sort of big, or even small, transition? Rest in these truths. Rest in Him.