Change is Pricey

blank page
blinking cursor
birdsong out the open window.

pieces of thoughts like
popcorn popping
puzzled just won't fit together.

wordless ideas
windblown papers
what are we trying to say?

twelve disciples
tattered linen
tears shed for a fallen teacher.

saving grace
something changes
sights and sounds in joyful chorus

champion of death
Christ now lives!
character... influence... reason...

broken once, now
bound in Christ
breathless awe at this changed life.



When I opened this empty blog page this morning, I had so many rabbit trails of ideas and thoughts none of them seemed to fit together.  No direction. No intention.  Just the need to put it all down.  When writing papers and essays in school, I always seemed to do my best work sitting in front of a blank screen (or page)...that first word was all it took.  So, here's this poem.  God amazes me as he works even through this...guiding my thoughts so that the finished lines speak to me in a way I never thought they could.
Change is what has been most boldly in my mind.  There are many things I desire to change within myself, both mentally and physically.  And, I wonder, is it true that

 ...people never really change?

I don't think so.  Look at Christ's disciples!  Each one of them became a changed life!  Every person who is made new in Christ becomes a changed life!  Change is possible. It's difficult, but possible.  Christ can do it, and it can be all at once and easier than I once believed.

I always looked at change as something very difficult.  I thought in order to change I had to give up something...and, through the difficulty of abstaining, I had to add something completely different and make it an instant habit.  Christ has shown me that this is not the case.  Change comes through substitution.  Christ died on the cross as a substitution for me, changing how God the father looks at me (as one cleansed, no longer stained by sin)...and now I am welcomed as one of His own.  With that in mind, change is never free.

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Application, what good will I substitute for the not so good in my life today?