We woke up to a horrible winter morning in Austin. In the low forties, the wind was howling, and it started raining when it was time to leave for work and school. Not one of those mild, pitter-pat rains, this was a driving, gully washing, frog strangling rain. The whole morning was absolutely miserable. It rained off and on for over four hours while the wind howled and the temperature remained in the forties.

    Then suddenly, shortly after lunch, the clouds seemed to disappear. The sun came out. The temperature warmed to the high sixties. The sky was clear. It was absolutely gorgeous! You could not have ordered a more picture perfect winter afternoon. “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait an hour and it will change.” When it’s cold, windy, and rainy, you’re glad the weather is subject to change!

    As I watched the Olympic coverage that evening, Picabo Street won the Super G event by mere 0.01 of a second. She wasn’t supposed to win. This isn’t her specialty. She had never won a Super G event. Even more incredibly, in 1996 she totally destroyed her knee in a tough fall and only two weeks earlier had suffered a horrible concussion in a bad fall while competing. Picabo Street was certainly glad that her life was subject to change!

    There’s one thing that’s more certain than death and taxes—change. All of life is subject to change. We live a motion picture, not a snapshot. The weather changes, our bodies change, our circumstances change, all of life changes. The only unchangeable in our lives other than God, is that life is subject to change.

Change for us can be more than change.

    For us as Christians, there is more to it than that. Change for us can be more than change. Change can mean transformation—a whole new world and not just a change in scenery. We can start life fresh and new. That’s what conversion is all about. We are no longer sinners, but stand before God as his children, presented by Jesus “holy, without blemish, and free from accusation.” As God’s children who sometimes stumble and fall, we can have our spiritual world reset and return to perfection. When our world seems to come apart at the seams, we can trust that God’s grace is at work undoing Satan’s messes and disasters, while working things toward our ultimate good. As we face each new day, God’s faithfulness means his blessings and love are new and fresh every morning. Even in those long stretches of life when things get monotonously similar, and it seems we’re going nowhere, God is at work through his Spirit transforming us a little bit each day to become more like Christ.

    So while our world is subject to change, we can take heart that as God’s children, we’re intended for transformation. Our destination, our goal, is assured because the Agent of Change is at work making us more like him!