Changes

This morning as we dropped off the boys at their new school, we stayed for the morning assembly. Damascus is only entering third grade, and he’s already been to schools with three different national anthems in three drastically different languages. Joshua has been to six different schools since preschool. As far as we can tell, they are used to this.

And then there’s the other side of the spectrum. I went to the same school from kindergarten to high school in the same small town in upstate New York. There are some great things about having gone to the same school my entire life: my friends didn’t change too much, it was close to where I lived, it was predictable, and I knew most of the staff and students. There are also some downsides: the same friends, the same small town, the same routine. My boys have had a wide range of friends from all over the world, but so far they don’t have any friends about whom they can use the phrase, “I grew up with.”

While I do wonder at times if it really is the best for my boys to change schools so often, there are some other things they have the opportunity to learn as a result--things I didn’t really learn until I left my small town--because the people and the environment are quite different in each location. They can relate to people from all classes of society; that includes children who grew up in the farmlands of Kenya to children who grew up in wealthy families in the Bay Area. They adapt to a wide variety of teaching methods easily. They understand how blessed they to be able to attend school at all, especially in a country where millions of children do not. Above all, they know courage, even if it sometimes wobbles when an 11-year-old Joshua realizes what it means to look different from every other person in a school. Yet, when he gets to know his classmates, those external differences disappear for him. Indeed, they teach me a great deal.

Maybe in the body of Christ we get too used to the same environment, the same routine, the same seat in church, the same parking space in the lot, or even the same small group. What would happen if we just changed one of these things? It would be awkward. It might make us nervous. However, it would also unlock the opportunity to learn more about God and ourselves in the process. Change isn't always good. There are times we need to stay planted. Change isn't always bad. It can force us to rely on the constancy of the Lord's presence rather than the constancy of what we think we can control. Still, I’m asking God what He wants to change about what I do every day. I’m also asking what shouldn’t change.