Changing Of The Guard

My least favorite time of year is fast approaching…..the leaves have all fallen off the trees….its starting to get a little colder…..and football season is drawing to a close.  My college team, Mississippi State has one game remaining, and my NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, are all but out of the playoffs.  Change.  It’s a fact of life.

My college team knows this all too well.  In our last game we lost our quarterback for the year, lost the game to our in-state rival, and later on in the weekend lost our coach.  Coach Mullen did great things for the program…..he took us places we have never been before.  But the only thing in life that is constant is that life continuously changes.

I love how Nick Fitzgerald, our quarterback, whom only a few hours after his injury responded to the loss of his coach.  Nick posted on his Twitter account on Sunday after Coach Mullen left, “Thank you Coach Mullen for building this program into what it is today.  But a program is bigger than 1 person.  We pride ourselves on our ability to always give relentless effort and I am very excited to be able to lead this team to a new level next season.  HailState!!!”

What a great way to respond.  What leadership and courage he displayed….especially with what he had undergone only a few days before.

Our life has been nothing but change since September.  We have officially sold our house….we live in an apartment awaiting our new house to be built….the boys have changed schools…..and now most recently we have changed churches, to one closer to where we will be living.  And the crazy thing is,  I’ve never been a part of something that hasn’t gone smoother, something that had so many cogs that could have broken along the way, so many different things that could have gone entirely wrong.  My wife calls it a “God Thing.”

And trust me, I completely agree.  God has been with us through all of this.  The closest thing to an almost issue was the new homeowners finding a few holes in our carpet the day before closing….but even that somehow got worked out with no effort on our part.  Like I said before….change is constant….but one thing I have learned is even in the busiest of times….when things are moving faster than you think you can handle….just stop….and listen……and God will provide you with what you need.  So far we have made it through this unscathed.  I spend my lunches at the park, in silence, talking to God and just listening.

But I will say of all the things in life that change…there is one that does not, and that is Jesus Christ.  For it says in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (13:8.)”   And in that statement alone I hold on to the hope of mine and my families future….even when things won’t settle down for one moment.  I know there is a plan…..I know we are where we are, at this time, for a reason….and hope and faith in Jesus Christ is what keeps me standing on firm ground.  “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters the veil, where Jesus has entered for us having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:19.)”

Don’t let life’s changes get to you.  We can’t control everything.  We can’t even control most things.  But what we can control is who we go to when we need to just hit the pause button.  I can’t even imagine how I would have made it through all of this just a year ago.  But now, I don’t think I could be more certain that we are just following God’s plan for our lives.

So when you are going through a season of change, when the floor falls our from beneath you, turn to the One who is constant….Jesus Christ……and you will make it through just fine.  I pray for each of you that you can find that inner peace in your times of change that I have found in mine.