When Change Is Incredibly Uncomfortable

I spent a three-day weekend cleaning and organizing the living room, much to the consternation of our dogs. Do they want clean, fluffy beds ... yes. Do they want to be able to see out the windows so they can bark at turkeys and deer ... yes.

But do they want their furniture rearranged, their schedules altered, and their lives apparently ruined because of my efforts to make our home clean and smelling nice? Absolutely not.

There's a second picture to the one here. Diesel is my biggest stick in the mud when it comes to my doing weird things at strange times without his permission. After staring at me with a scowl for several minutes, he retreated to the bedroom to pout. I rocked his little world with all my cleaning, and he wasn't about to sit there and watch me do it anymore.

Isn't this how we often handle change in our own lives? God moves something, changes something, cleans something up, and we have the same reaction I just witnessed. We park ourselves in front of the sofa and frown. Then we go off and pout until we're ready to come out dramatically. Resigned, we decide to just handle the change and try to move on, often with a well-timed sigh.

As Jeremiah prophesied of the Babylonian captivity, the Lord reminded His people that yes, there would be 70 years in a foreign land, but He also promised that this captivity was for a purpose.

For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Jeremiah 29:10-14


What we don't read is that God said, I will give you an expected end ... and here it is!


What He did say was there is an expected end, and it's My end. You'll pray and I'll answer. You'll seek Me and find Me and be drawn to search for Me with all your heart. I will bring you back out of captivity, but not before things happen that I need to have happen. People need to change and grow, and circumstances have to occur in My way before you can come back home.


Think about the trust and faith that would have taken on the part of the Jewish people. All they saw was this drastic change from peace and prosperity to captivity and slavery. But God Himself said it was going to be ok because He had plans for them, peaceful thoughts that were the furthest thing from evil. That was all they had at that point, and that's what they were looking forward to.


I don't know what your expected end is. I definitely don't know what mine is, either, but God does. The changes happening right now as you're reading this are leading up to some kind of purpose - just as my three days of upending the house turned into something clean and peaceful. I know the changes aren't that simple, they're probably uncomfortable and unwanted and a little bit scary. But the same thoughts of peace that were pointing to an expected end thousands of years ago are coming from that same God to us today.


As I write these words, everything in our living room is in its new place. It looks better, it smells better, it even feels better. And the dogs are all curled up, sound asleep on their fluffy clean beds. They didn't know it would be this good, but I did. If we have confidence that God has even greater things in store for us than this, we can sleep just as peacefully in the midst of whatever change He brings our way. Change doesn't have to be uncomfortable if we're trusting in the Lord's end result. Whatever that may be.

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