大象传媒

Good morning.听 We鈥檝e just about finished re-decorating and de-cluttering our house.听 To us it looks radical and quite exciting.听 But to anyone else 鈥� and some have told us so 鈥� it just looks like a slightly tidier version of what was there before.听 Why change what you鈥檙e comfortable with?听 Well, if only life were that simple.听 Ask anyone these days about what鈥檚 going on in their business, their school, their hospital, and in an area that is very close to my heart 鈥� their church 鈥� and they will pin your ears back with accounts of the massive changes they are having to cope with and the anxiety, the stress and the conflict and hostility those changes can cause.

听

Why is it that many of us find change so difficult?听 Well, today is the birthday of a man who said something about that that I find really helpful.听 John Maynard Keynes is, of course best remembered as one of the 20th Century鈥檚 most famous economists.听 But he was much more than that.听 He has been described as one of the century鈥檚 most influential people 鈥� a distinguished civil servant, a gifted writer, a patron of the arts and a philosopher as well as a ground breaking economist.听 In all his areas of interest he encountered the need for and hostility to change.

听

Reflecting on that he said 鈥淭he difficulty lies, not in new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.鈥澨�

听

It鈥檚 a sentiment that, for me, has echoes of what according to the prophet Isaiah God tells us when He instructs us not to call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past, because He is doing something new.听

听

The simple truth is that the world is constantly changing and not always for the good.听 But we can embrace and be part of managing change or we can wear ourselves out in a futile struggle against it.

听

Father, give us courage to face new and unfamiliar ideas and situations with faith that however good the past seems the future can be better.听 Amen