Change

It strikes me one of the few constants in life is change.
Change can be small and imperceptible maybe all that changed today is you got a year older.
Change can be huge maybe you just made a lifetime commitment to something or somebody.
Change can be exciting, painful, scary and elicit hundreds of other emotions beside.

The end of the year/beginning of a new one is often the time to reflect on what has changed and what we would like to change in the future.

Home, marriage, work, family - I've seen massive changes in all these areas with much pain, sadness, tears and some joy. Some of the changes in my life will reverberate for many years into the future, some of those reverberations will be painful and some will bring peace. Change in these areas was needed and maybe even inevitable.

I now live in Birchanger village, the sign to the village is pictured above and in the centre of the sign, the centre of the villages title is the word CHANGE. Moving here and everything that has followed change has been at the centre of my life.

So what should we do about change - as it is inevitable one way or another.
It strikes me we either embrace it or try to deny or ignore it.
For too many years I took the later strategy to little effect.
To embrace change is the right answer even if that embracing is just being true to yourself so you know the choices you make are honest ones.
I choose to embrace the changes 2016 will bring.

To 5K and beyond...

This weekend I decided* to join in my local ParkRun, a regular 5k (3 mile) run around Hatfield Forest.   I used to run sporadically many years ago and have completed one marathon (Loch Ness) and four half marathons (Great North Run) in my time.   Regular running has been a hard habit to keep but I need something regular in my life right now and I need to get fit. Apart from my 10 min cycle to the station I am genereally sitting on a train or in a car and then behind a desk - with occasional days walking around a large building or two. I would class my lifestyle as sedentary.   But why am I really doing it? Igues there are several reasons:

• For the pleasure - yes I actually enjoy running even through the pain
• Stopping the middle age spread - my waist measurement is 28" but currently I find a 34" more comfortable! I don't want that to creep upto 36" and beyond
• The need to build a healthy habit rather slide into more habits that veer towards the selfish/self distructive end of the spectrum
• Gives me time to think - when I get to longer runs I can think and have a conversation with myself
• Takes me out of myself and my location

  So heres to building a healthy habit and to the beyond it will lead me into.     * I didn't actually make it to the 5k, my lift left without me! So I ran 2.5k (1.5 miles) around nearby fields.

Habits of a lifetime can be changed

Do you have bad habits, recurring failures, addictions? If not you are one in a million (or fooling yourself!).

The rest of us know we have stuff that keeps tripping us up again and again.

If you're like me this stuff has become almost second nature, part of who I am. Therefore, if I want to change any of these behaviours and actions it is actually painful because in a perverse way they have become a comfort blanket.

I am trying to change a couple of my worst traits and recently I was listening to a couple of preaches from Mars Hill that I found helpful.

Shane Hipps spoke about the hundreds and thousands of choices that lead to situations of personal pain, bad habits or even addictions. We have to admit that we did make those choices, albeit they became more and more automatic responses the more we let the bad habit form. It was one of those sermons when it seemed the preacher was talking just to me. He went on to say there is hope as we come to God and make the right choices. These boulders of bad behaviour/habits will be worn down by the constant flow of God's healing water. (click here to go and listen)

Kent Dobson talked from the story of Ruth of hopeless circumstances. Ruth did all she could in her situation of just taking one step at a time to walk towards hope. (click here to go and listen)

I am trying to take one step towards hope each day and I am thankful for the lovely people I have around me who guide me, encourage me and pull me up when I stumble and fall.

If you are stuck in whatever way I would recommend listening to one or both of these messages, I believe they may just speak to and encourage you where you are at.

Doing the right thing, the easy thing or nothing

Fork In The Road - Walnut Creek, California
(via PatrickSmithPhotography)

In our lives we come up against many forks in the road. These present us with choices, most of our choices don't make a great deal of difference. What we choose to wear each day for most of us will have little effect on the grand destiny of our lives, as much as the fashion police would beg to differ! Occasionally we have choices which clearly change our paths, as the saying goes, "nothing will be the same again".

Often these choices are between doing the right thing, as we see it, or doing the easy thing - follow the line of least resistance to pass by on the other side.

Doing the right thing can often be painful and costly, it makes us unpopular perhaps and yet along with all these negatives comes a peace in our soul.

The easy path avoids the immediate pain yet doesn't it just push the issue into the future?

Of course there is another way, one I often follow - do nothing. Don't choose, in fact ignore that the choice is there and in time the momentum of life will push you past that fork in the road and it will soon fade into the past. But the major choices in our lives come back again and again and these choices usually get harder, more difficult and more painful.

I believe that almost everyone of us is approaching a major fork in the road. If you are I pray you have the clarity and strength to do the right thing and that God will sustain you through and on that path as you walk it.

Being part of something BIG

Today I took part in something that could make a major change in the life of our town and nation. I voted!

It is likely that because where I live is dominated by one party my vote probably won't make any difference.
However, I know that voting does change lives and situations. There have been significant elections which have been won by only a few votes, in those cases just a few hundred or thousand people changed the course of a nation.

The incredible thing is everyday you and I have multiple opportunities to change lives. In our many encounters and interactions with people our actions, words, and sometimes even our silence can affect a person's direction, attitude or even their future. Most (maybe 99%?) of these interactions will not make much difference but the thing is we don't control what does or doesn't.

So today remember you have the chance to make a BIG difference, so go forth and be yourself - a life changer!