One Step Closer

I’m writing this from a darkened hotel room in Southampton, listening to the snoring of Benjamin (age 3), after two days of family holiday discovering the delights of Peppa Pig World and Paultons Park theme park… and actually, for a 3 year old who (as we have now discovered) loves roller coasters but is scared of ducks and a 6 year old who finds even the tamest of roller coasters too scary, but doesn’t have an issue with the ducks, jackdaws, crows and other assorted wildlife who assembled at various points to try and steal our picnic, it’s been a pretty good break, although if I hear the theme to Peppa Pig again soon I may go insane!

I’d love to have been inspired by Peppa Pig for the subject for a blog entry, but I’ve failed with that. However, I have been thinking again, which is always a little scary! What’s got me thinking is the need to change things, and the speed things need to change.

Whilst there are many things I could be talking about, in this case I’m talking about me. Because (as you will no doubt agree) there are many things in my life which I could really do with changing. I should be reading my Bible more, praying more, sharing the gospel more. I could be getting cross and angry less, moaning less, judging people less. I could do more to look after the environment, to care for the needy and disadvantaged, to deal with the big issues of the world…

The list is endless, and I’m pretty certain that, ideally, God would have me change all these things, and more. But I’m human (honestly!) and that means I don’t like the idea of change.

Occasionally, just occasionally, something big comes along and God makes it clear that I have to change, and have to do so completely, pretty much there and then. And if I chose to do so (because there’s always a choice with God), he helps me with that – deciding I needed to get baptised was one of those changes.

But generally, change is a gradual thing. Most of the time, change in me is one small step at a time, one little thing which I need to do better, one thing to stop, or start, or increase, or decrease. And that way, it’s manageable. It’s not easy, but I can cope with a series of small changes, usually 2 steps forward and 1 back – making me ever more like Him. It’s a long journey, and one I won’t complete this side of eternity, but it’s a journey I’m trying to travel with him.

But then, I get surprised when other people are on the same journey. I expect other people to change much quicker than I’m willing to change myself. I mean, sometimes, things are so obvious that surely everyone, even that person, can see why they need to change, what they need to be doing now, and how to get there, all in one step, just the same as me, can’t they?

Maybe that’s one small step I can take right now – to recognise that everyone else is on a journey too, and that God is prompting them to change things in their lives, one step at a time. And maybe they’re not the steps I think they should be….