Embracing Change

This week, a commentator on a radio broadcast made an observation I had never before considered. He was speaking of the financial crisis that America is facing, specifically in reference to policies that certain leaders in federal government are trying to pass.   In defense of their position regarding changes to regulatory policies, one of the leaders offered that the regulatory changes had been offered for consideration to leaders in the industries involved.  As they were in favor of them, the nation should also be in favor of them.

The commentator offered this interesting objection to that logic.  Paraphrased, he stated:

“Consider the transportation industry of 100 years ago.  Consider that the government determined the need to regulate the development of air travel, and that in the process of establishing those regulations, the regulatory commission decided to look to the transportation leaders of the day. They would draw together the input of people who built locomotives, ships, buses and automobiles.  They would ask them to define the regulations surrounding air travel.  Each member of that community would stand to lose business in the advent of air transport. What incentive would they have for backing legislation that would not only aid a competitor, but backing an industry that would antiquate their own businesses?   In this scenario, current industry leaders would have the opportunity to regulate the air industry so tightly that it would 

never get off the ground.”

The commentator applied the same logic to health care.  

“If one company came up with an alternative medical breakthrough that could cure cancer, for the government to allow the companies who make their living selling cancer medicine to be the voice of regulation of the new procedure in cancer research is potentially very counter productive.   It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to develop medicines and often a decade to have the medicine approved for distribution.  Having a new cure discovered before the industry’s research investment can realize a profit in the form of drugs sold is not in the best interest of the pharmaceutical companies.”

The sentiment is clear. The status quo is usually set by a life built in a certain way. Change always affects the status quo, ergo, it affects those who live by it.  Those who profit or reap the benefits of comfort from the status quo are often the strongest opponents to change.

Change requires innovative thought. 

Change requires vision. 

Change can require letting go of everything in order

to gain what is necessary for the future.  

The unwillingness to embrace change eventually leads a to stagnant life. Years ago, Kodak did not want to divide their resources and run the risk of losing their consumer base in the industry.  Their most valued clients were those in the major motion picture industry and professional photographers. Everyone in their customer base in is to a large degree, artistic. Most artists believe themselves to be “purists”.  Kodak bet the farm on the belief that digital photography and video was a fad and that the “purists” of the industry would not only reject digital media, but would also reject any company that progressed in digital media.  The stock reports told the story.  Kodak lost the bet.  They were in the position of having to risk letting go of a major portion of their empire in order to build for the future and they were unwilling to let go. Unwillingness to embrace change cost them dearly.

We are moving in the midst of a new generation.  That fact is as constant as the spinning of the earth.  There is great power in time-honored traditions.  There is great power in holding onto proven fundamental beliefs and core values.  However, there is a danger when one holds onto his current status in life under the assumption that the static things are the fundamental things or the core elements of life.

Cartographers for generations built their map trade on the core belief that the earth was flat.  I am certain that those guys stood in opposition to the guys who began to sell globes.  We can view that with a certain logic and even a little humor. But what happens when God wants to take our “flat life” and “round it out?” People often declare that they want to go to new levels. They want to be on the cutting edge. They forget that the cutting edge may cause them to sail off the end of the earth. Christopher Columbus was so short-handed for a crew that he wound up with a ship full of criminals who opted for the unknown and possible oblivion I lieu of a known lifetime of imprisonment.  Ol’ Chris understood that to be the cutting edge meant sailing to the edge. He could fall off the planet in the middle of the night, taking not only his life, but also those in his charge.  He risked everything, not just comfortable things.  His motley crew could, and some eventually did mutiny, taking from his hand much of the resources he had left

for the journey.  Yet something inside of him said, 

“History hasn’t figured it out. There is more than what you are seeing and living.”  

Even being proven wrong was to risk and likely end all he had worked for.  

Everything was on the line.

To truly move forward with God means embracing change. God doesn’t change, but He changes us. The earth continually changes and to walk in it as He decreed, we have to recognize those changes and be in front of them. There is a generation that is dying. There is a people looking for the airplane in an automobile world.  God is looking for the innovators – for those who can recognize how to maintain the core values and beliefs while offering them in ways that are fresh and attainable to the new generation. He is looking for the warriors who will lay it on the line to lead a generation toward Him. 

The season ahead will require several changes.  Some of them will be seem minor. Others will seem major. All of them will require those who embrace them to consider what they will hold onto and what they will release as a seed toward a better future.

Such change will require innovation.  It will require a people courageous enough to reconsider how they present the gospel. It will require those who will re-evaluate what is really value and even how they will live life. It will require people for whom the true fundamentals will remain; for whom core beliefs are established and not changed or threatened by method.  It will require a people who are unwilling to live by the status-quo of their current life –for whom the “flat-life” is not acceptable.  God is looking for a people who can wrap their minds around His “globe” His world. He is looking for a people who will embrace change.

The Gift of Observation

One of the greatest gifts God has placed in man is the ability to observe. As a pastor, a a husband and father, and even as a member of the community, I have worked hard to be a determined observer. I am a pilot and one of the most important things a pilot must to is continually observe all that is around him. Failure to see even one detail can be disastrous.

 As I write this blog, I am on the balcony of an apartment in San Pedro De Marcoris, Dominican Republic. I am right in the heart of town next to a busy intersection. I am engaged in ministry every night and most days. However, my "down time" if there is such a thing, has been incredibly productive. Without transportation and with little command of the language, when I am not out ministering, I am like a bird n a cage, perched in a unique observation point. It has given me the opportunity to finish a book I am writing. It has also given me the opportunity to exercise the gift of observation. In a week, I have learned what vehicles belong here and and those that do not. I have learned the faces of the locals and even a dew of their habits. I know the routine of the local police in these few blocks. I know who works, who doesn't work and who pretends to work. I can see prosperity, mediocrity, and poverty all from the same balcony. I find myself amazed that on one corner in a city, if you are careful you can observe the balance of life. 

In traveling through the city, my awareness of what I see from my perch has made me more acutely aware of what I discover in the rest of the city.  All of this caused me to think about how people observe, and more importantly what they do once they have made an observation. 

 As a pastor, I used to face great frustration on the midst of certain observations made and brought to me by others. In my first year of ministry, I felt compelled to act on such observations because they always seemed to point to a need. As a traveling minister, my actions came at great personal cost, both financially and physically. When I embraced the responsibility of pastoring, I found the compulsion to act even more draining. It seemed that everywhere I turned, would encounter another observer. that observer would identify the need and bring it to me to solve or resolve. Each time I acted, people would be happy about it. But, each time I took my hand off the action, that which I had done to correct the problem would quickly disintegrate. It was very frustrating, so much so that I began to pray for a specific answer. One came in the form of a writing from Erwin McManus, the pastor of the Mosaic in California.

 In his book "Chasing Daylight", he wrote:

 "I couldn't begin to count the number of times people would come up and say, 'Pastor, something needs to be done about...' With every identified problem there was a program, service or a ministry that needed to be started. It seemed as of the congregations job was to find the problems and recommend the solutions and my job was to et them done. Somewhere along the way, out of desperation, I began to ask the people who identified the need to become part of the solution. The response was almost uniform. 'Oh, no, not me. I just felt that it was important to point out the need.' This is where side-liners are particularly lethal. They have so much time to watch life go by that they have a great view of all of the problems, which inspires them, especially when they assume that their role in life is to point out what's wrong. They conclude that their contribution is at best to suggest solutions and then 

sit back and evaluate how we are doing." 

 Erwin went on to explain that "observers" like this can drain you of everything. They move you by need, control you by guilt, and are willing to leave you dead from exhaustion. He continued by identifying that he encountered the same problem I discovered that while people were quick to point out a need, they were unwilling to participate in that need. as a result, he could implement what was necessary to touch the need only to see it fail for lack of human willingness to see it through.

 Shortly after reading this book I had a young man who had spent some time with our congregation. He was frustrated because I was not allowing his gift to flourish. When asked what his gift was, he replied that his was to observe the condition and need of city and point it out to the pastor of the church so that something could be done. I offered to him that I had responded to his concerns. I had placed him in the position of reaching directly into the needs he encountered and was willing to back him with human and financial resource the moment he produced 

some effort and momentum. Then I asked him, 

"In the midst of all of that need, who have you reached?" 

He then informed me that his was only the gift of observation. He was to call others to action, not act himself. Oddly the thought that crossed my in in that moment was William Wallace calling his men into action...seated upon his horse with a sword in his hand. The point is this. Created in God's image, you have the powerful ability to observe all that happens around you. If God stirs your heart about a need, then He is likely speaking to you about that need. If your compulsion to identify that need is strong enough to press someone for a solution, then you need to consider that God is pressing you to be a part of that solution. The call to action is only really answered by those ready to lead the charge. Hence, if it is yours to call, be prepared to lead he battle. The gift of observation is a tool of action. It only works when you act.