Stretch and Embrace Change

Stretch and Embrace Change

by Diana Scothorn

It would have been impossible twenty years ago for me to visualize the life God had for me. I couldn’t see past where I currently was. After a devastating divorce in 1990, I knew my life could never be the same! I cried, prayed, and pleaded, why God, why?

I had no idea what God had ahead for me, and I couldn’t imagine life anyway except what was familiar. It was anything but comfortable to move on. It hurt deeply, but more importantly, it was not what I wanted! I wanted my life to be the same. God, on the other hand, knew I had to change if I wanted to live on the inside again.

I’m sure there have been times we’ve all experienced forced change. Change, when we’re not the ones initiating it, causes us to…

…RESIST and REMAIN. As a result, we remain in pain!

Temporary setbacks are never comfortable. I couldn’t believe just one week prior, my life looked so different! God, however, is never surprised. He always has a plan, and it’s always good.

It’s a natural tendency to gravitate towards what we know and what is familiar. That could be paraphrased, “What is safe and comfortable, not to shake our world.” But of course, when we stay in our comfort zone and refuse to step out, it’s the perfect recipe for going nowhere.

Comfort invites complacency and keeps us in a place where we never grow! It will leave you dissatisfied and unfulfilled!  The hardest part is initiating the first step, but each step gets more manageable.

Unfamiliar territory presents new opportunities but also requires a new mindset. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. Our mind can refrain or advance God’s Perfect will!”

Change makes everything different and takes much more energy when your mind focuses on the past. Past is defined as gone by in time and no longer existing.

The weight of holding on to what is gone is exhausting. Philippians 3:13 says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”

God has so much more but we often settle!  In my past, I have settled because of fear of what lies ahead. I have learned that it’s a healthy place to be comfortably uncomfortable.

We are either stretching or shrinking, or as my husband says, we are either growing, or we are dying!

To stretch, you must extend to the full- or hold out.  To shrink, you draw or retreat. Hebrews 10:39 says we are not to belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

I look back and think about where I would be today if I did not have the courage to move out of yesterday. I am blessed beyond anything I could have conceived.

I am happily married to a God-fearing husband; we are passionate about each other and serving God!  However, I know God has more.

God wants us to continue to step out of our comfort zone and stretch our arms toward Him as we embrace change as He will lead the way.

If we want something different in life, we have to have the courage to step out into unfamiliar territory. We can never stop stretching because God always has much more in mind!