Moving from A to B

God calls us to move into His destiny/calling for our lives. That means growth or movement. In our growth as Christians we are constantly growing – either larger or smaller; forward or backwards. In order to become who God calls us to be we need to move forward into the new place of growth, a new place of understanding, a new place of spiritual maturity. This may be painfully obvious, but in order to get where we’re going we need to leave where we are. We need to leave the current situation, our current comfort zone to face the new challenges of growth. We often want a change in destiny without personal change. We sometimes want a change in our circumstances but are not willing to pay the price of change.

What is the price? First of all, it requires a change of heart. We need to be people who feel dissatisfaction – or to put it more positively, we need to be people who express desire. We need to want to change. It actually starts with the promise of God. God’s promises are a response to our dissatisfaction. Promises are meaningless if they do not paint a future different from the reality we are currently experiencing. So a promise assumes dissatisfaction or at least a state of longing or desire. I believe desire is one of the most powerful forces for change. We need to identify the desires we have and if we don’t have any we need to actively cultivate desire.

Second, paying the price requires a change of habit. We need to change our behaviour. I think it was Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same things while expecting a different result. If we want a change in our world we need to change what we do. This requires discipline. In the world of personal change it may require adopting spiritual disciplines. It will certainly require the discipline of self-awareness and self-evaluation.

Third, paying the price means that we will need to change our habitat. By this I mean the place where we dwell emotionally and mentally. What is our comfort zone? To move from A to B we will definitely need to leave our place of comfortable emotional habitation. It means we will have to take risks, try something new, take a chance. In the Gospel of Mark, a woman who has suffered for twelve years with an issue of blood, tried something different, something that had no precedent, something socially and religiously unacceptable. She went out in public and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment – risking making him unclean – in order to see a change in her circumstances. She took a risk and saw a change. She stepped out of her comfort zone and saw a miracle. She was willing to pay the price.

This woman presents an effective example of moving from point A to point B and we would do well to follow the example.