Pastoral Perspective - I have changed, and you can too!09/16/2016We all welcome change, that is until things start to change. The results of a recent challenge in my office environment reminded me of what happens when we encounter something worth changing. Or in this case, what can happen when our focus is on something other than the change itself. It happened almost unnoticed. I recently got a big study chair. It is wonderful, except for the fact that it keeps me from getting very close to the left side of my L-shaped desk. It seemed to be in the way, until I realized that I was using the mouse pad on the right side of my keyboard drawer. By moving the mouse pad to the left side of the drawer which lines up with the rest of my desk, I had plenty of room. Problem solved! It took a little getting used to the change, but it was worth the initial awkwardness. Then I remembered. I am left-handed, and should have had my mouse pad on the left all along. For five years I had used my mouse pad on the right because of the desk I was using. In that desk setup, there was no room on the left and there was a pull out drawer on my right that I had to use. I had gotten so accustomed to that arrangement that when I changed desks I automatically set up with my mouse to the right.Office layouts may be irrelevant, but consider what happened. I changed, without even realizing it! My focus was on my study, so the inconvenience and clumsiness of the change was greatly lessened. Before long, the change was so complete that the former way of setting up was forgotten. There is a direct parallel spiritually! 2 Corinthians 5:17 promises us "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We rejoice in that promise and welcome the change, until things start to change. We are challenged in Romans 12:2 to be "transformed", and it sounds great. But often we find ourselves in the middle of a slow transformation, or a frustration that the "new creature" isn't quite what we thought it should be. Keep your focus on your relationship with God, and the renewing will take place in time! I can change, and you can too!