A few years back, Facebook, that enormous social media website, went through some aesthetic changes.  Different icons and menus were shuffled around, graphics were updated, items were deleted or changed, and everyone was upset about it.

At that time Facebook had around 250 Million users and about 249 million of the users were outraged by these adjustments.  Within hours people where expressing their dissatisfaction with the changes and they were calling for “everything to go back to the way it used to be.”

What is it about change that is so difficult for us to grasp?  Why do we get so upset when Facebook changes its layout, or when they change the time of our favorite TV show, or when they change the menu at the restaurant?

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.” – Romans 12:2  taken from The Message paraphrase.

In this portion of his letter to the Romans, Paul is inviting members of the church in Rome to understand their faith as something that calls them to a different way of life than that of the Roman culture.  Paul invites them to fix their thoughts on God and to be transformed by that relationship.  

The reality is that we all need to change.  None of us are completely perfect, finished individuals.  We all have work to do and areas to grow.  And that’s what God desires from us more than anything else: God wants nothing more than to be invited into our lives so that we might be changed from the inside out.

Obviously, change upsets us because it upsets our equilibrium.  It disturbs our well-worn routines and expectations.  But maybe there’s more than that.

Maybe we get so upset when things change around us because its an indirect reminder that we haven’t changed– we have yet to embrace the transformation that God offers us.  As difficult as change can be, I believe we could all do well to at least consider the ways that God might be at work in the midst of changes.  Perhaps the change that we are so upset or afraid of is exactly the type of transformation that we’ve needed all along.  

Dear God, may we open ourselves to your transforming love and learn to trust you through the changes.  Amen.