The Solid Rock

"Change is inevitable..."
How many times have we heard this expression?
What kind of reaction does this thought evoke on a person?
Well, on this person, I'll tell you, it evokes nervousness.  Why?  Because I don't like change!  Why don't I like it? because it implies that something unknown is coming.  And I like to always have a sense of control over everything around me...and I find it very hard to control that which I don't know...

One moment I'm cruising through life.  Everything is right with the world...then...BAM! The earth shakes, someone removes the floor from beneath my feet, and I don't even know where I am anymore.  It has happened to me countless of times.  There's the small-scale tremors: I can't find the keys to my car and I have to cancel class because I can't get to work.  The article I spent a tremendous amount of time writing and editing did not get published.  The trip to the lake we planned gets cancelled because somebody is not feeling well...  And...there's the full-out, red-alert, life altering earthquakes:  I'm moving to the United States for good, leaving my family, my friends, my country, my life behind.  I get a phone call that my Mom is gone. I get a phone call that I'm not pregnant. I get a phone call that my Father-in-Law is tragically gone. I get a phone call that my Dad is gone.  I get a phone call that I might have cancer.  I get a phone call that my husband lost his job...have I mentioned how much I DETEST phone calls?!

Sigh...

Change causes a great amount of instability that someone like me has very little tolerance for.  I spend a significant part of my life trying to create an environment that seems firm, a ground that is solid so I can stand unafraid of sudden movement and change.  I don't want to live in California because I'm deathly afraid of the San Andreas fault line!  So, I go out of my way to try to stack all the pieces of my life together in a way that gives me the appearance of stability...until something changes when I'm not paying attention and...everything I spent so much time and effort building, falls apart.

What am I supposed to do?  How can someone like me survive her walk through the valley of the shadows of death?  Where do I find something/someone to cling to that will keep my head above water? Where do I find my guarantee? Who can I can rely on, that will never change or leave me?  Well, there's only One who will fulfill all my longings for reliability, stability and unchangeability: you guessed it, not me, not my husband not my children or my friends or my parents or anyone on this side of eternity!  The Lord is the Only One who will never leave me nor forsake me (Deuteronomy 31: 8).

He is my only Solid Rock!  He is my Strength! 

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18: 2

He is the One constant in my life, the One who never changes! (Malachi 3: 6)

He is the One who remains Faithful, even when I'm not! (2 Timothy 2: 13)

He is the One who even after everything else fades, withers and dies, still stays by me, sustaining me! (Isaiah 40:8)

He is the Same today, yesterday and forever! (Hebrews 13: 8)

He is the One who calls me by my name! (Isaiah 43: 1) And He is the One who speaks to me through sights, sounds, thoughts, impressions and most of all, His Word! So His is the only voice I must listen to...for I am His own.  

On Him I stand, On Christ the Solid Rock!  For all other ground is just sinking sand...

Do I get nervous about change?  Do I dislike the reality of the inevitability of change in life?  Yes and yes! But I also rest in the knowledge of His immovability.  I rest in the knowledge of His strength.  I rest in the knowledge of His sufficiency.  His Grace sustains me and His Word equips me to stay the course.  Therefore, when the ground shakes and everything in me quakes, threatening my sinking, I seek Him first with all my whole being until I feel His Hand steading me, reaching down from on high taking hold of me, pulling me out of the deep waters and rescuing me...until the day He brings me to that spacious place of peace and comfort. (Psalm 18: 16-19)

I trust His love, and how it endures forever!

So even though change makes me tremble, His presence steadies me and His love supports me.  Praised be His Name!  I love You, Lord Jesus! Amen!

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