WELCOME TO THE WILDERNESS OF CHANGE

Whether a change is expected or unexpected, good or bad, there is always a period of transition when we adjust to our new circumstances.  In many ways, it's like recovering from surgery or an illness -- we are recovering from change while moving into a new normal, a new place of wholeness.  But before we can get to that promised land of the new normal, it is necessary to journey through the wilderness of change with all its feelings of grief, pain, dislocation and disorientation.  This is the first in our new five-part series, "Living into 'New Normals'."  

Job 1:13-22
John 14-15-21, 25-28

No matter what the change is, no matter how strong our faith is, there is a sense of dislocation and disorientation where we need to figure out where we are and where we are now going.  It's like being lost in a wilderness without a compass.

When my husband and I moved to Cedar Rapids in 1999, we were excited.  Tom was starting a new job as a software engineer, and I was sure God had opened that door for us.  Even with a wonderful change like that, there is a down side.  I felt like my life was packed away in boxes along with the rest of possessions, to be gone through and the decision made whether to find a place for those things in my life or put them into storage or find something or someone new to replace them with.  It was like starting over, and the thing I grieved most was the career I loved and the job I left behind.  I needed help navigating this new part of my life.  My prayers during that time went something like this, "Okay God, you led me here -- now what?"

The bible is full of stories of God's people in the "wilderness."  Besides wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, the people of Israel, later in their history, were taken captive and forced to relocate to Babylon.  Talk about a big life adjustment!  And, there were also individuals, like Job.

In a short time, Job experienced three major, tragic losses:  the loss of his livestock which were the source of his livelihood, the death of many of his servants, and received the heart-breaking news that all of his children perished in a wind storm.  And even though he didn't blame God for any of it and made the traditional gesture of piety, Job mourned.  He tore his clothes, shaved his head, and sat among the ashes.  Tormented by boils and the bad theology of his misguided friends, Job cries out, "oh, that I knew where I might find him [God], that I might come even to his dwelling." (Job 23:3)

What Job needed at that moment was access to God, to know that God was there in the middle of his wilderness of anger and sorrow with him.  It is the question the human heart cries out at such times, "Where is God?"

The disciples gathered around the Passover table must have felt like they had been dropped of into the middle of nowhere without a compass or a map.  They had invested three very intense years of their lives as Jesus' followers.  All their emotional and spiritual eggs were in one basket -- Jesus was the Messiah -- and it looked like the basket was falling apart.  What were they going to do?  Go back to their old life?  Confused, lost and afraid, imagine how they felt when Jesus told them that he was going somewhere, and they couldn't come with him.

As God revealed himself to Job in front of his accusing friends and reaffirmed Job's faith in God, Jesus revealed a promise that would be their comfort and assurance as Jesus continued leading them to a new normal where they would go from followers to founders of faith communities that would change the world.  It is a promise that also available to when we feel like life has dropped us into the middle of the wilderness of change.

Through our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit forms an intimate connection between us and God and Christ.  Through the Holy Spirit, the love and power of God and the presence of Christ dwell within us, so that no matter where we are or what is happening to us, when we ask, "Where is God," we can be assured and find comfort in knowing that God will answer, "I am here."

As rain brings new life to to the dry wilderness, so the Holy Spirit brings us renewal, strength, hope and comfort in our emotional and spiritual wilderness journeys.  So, welcome to the wilderness of change, and know, be confident in, rely on this -- we are unconditionally loved, and we are not alone nor will we ever be abandoned.