I haven’t been smiling very much while watching the presidential campaigns on television, but I smiled last week when I watched a humorous montage of several presidential candidates promising change.  Of course it’s impossible to imagine building a political campaign on keeping things the same.  Even President Bush said last week that if he was running for office now that he would say, “Vote for me, I’m – I’m gonna be an agent of change.”  (NBC, MSNBC, Jan. 11, 2008).

    Change can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the current situation, and the same is true for the urgency or lack of urgency for change.  Sitting on the beach in Hawaii doesn’t immediately conjure up much of a need for change in my mind, unless, of course, a typhoon is on the horizon.

    Because there are few spots on the globe that are perpetually and genuinely idyllic, the clarion for change will always blow from the political stump.  The same is true from the pulpit.  

    The crunch of the apple in the Garden of Eden determined a course for the world and its inhabitants requiring change.  It isn’t until Revelation that the process is finally completed.

    There is no difficulty in finding situations in the world that desperately need to change.  But I agree with Tolstoy when he said, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" -- or herself to be politically up to date.

    My favorite Bible verse that advocates change is the first part of Romans 12:2, which says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  And I believe it’s equally true to say that before we can change the pattern of the world, we must change the pattern of our own mind.

    Personally, and I realize some will argue, I believe that such a change is impossible without God.  We just don’t have it in us for such a radical change until we invite God into our hearts to begin the lifelong transforming process.  

    Even with the help of God the process of change isn’t easy.  But not engaging in the transformation process proves fatal.  C.S. Lewis pointed this out when he wrote, “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.”

    Be it from pulpit or stump, I am more eager to follow a person’s pursuits of soaring for change when I see and hear some evidence of him or her having been hatched.  This makes Sunday morning when I step behind the pulpit the most humble moment of my week as I attempt to point toward Him who is able to change the hearts of people and nations.  

    God says, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God,” (Ezekiel 11:19-20 NIV).  Now that is a promise of change worthy of a vote!