Change, Absolutes and Church with Richard Dahlstrom

I have always said the “C” word changes everything. Are you struggling with things in your life today? Money problems? Family issues? Health difficulties? Problems at work? Have you given those things the “C” word test? You know, cancer. How do your problems stand up next to the call from the doctor, “You have cancer.”

I got that call this week for the first time. Now I don’t need to stretch out the story. It’s Basal Cell Carcinoma which is the most common form of skin cancer and next week I will go in and they will perform a Mohs procedure on the little mole size spot until they get to tissues without any cancer in it and I will walk out cancer-free. But, it was the “C” word, and it caused me to pause and check my perspective.

The day before a good friend of mine got the “D” word. That’s a bit more shocking than the C-word. Dead. I doubt he heard it, but he knew it was coming. My silly head goes back to games played as a child where you would run around yelling “You’re dead!” We don’t think much about it. It’s just a game until it isn’t. My friend is dead, for real. That too caused me to pause and check my perspective.

I laugh when I hear people make the statement “I don’t like change”. It just isn’t true.  Of course we like change if it is in the right direction. Your investments have changed to the best position you’ve ever been in.  Good change. Your relationship is healthier, your blood pressure is better. Good change. Your reputation among your friends is at an all-time high. Great change. Change can be great.

Psychologists will tell us that real deep change is almost always preceded by pain. Without pain to motivate our lazy tails, we are fine on the couch cruising through life. So life has a way of providing that stimulus, that pain to move us along. The stubborn among us will resist thinking we will win the battle against pain. Bad fight to pick.

The ancient Greek philosophers were a lively bunch trying to figure out life and understand change while seeking to discover what was absolute. What didn’t change? A guy by the name of Heraclitus is the one who made me smile even though he was given to depression.  What is Absolute? His response was “Change”. Change itself is the one thing we can count on. You can never step into the same river twice.

To bring us back down to earth and help us deal with change today we have a uniquely gifted traveler on this earth. He’s the Pastor of Bethany Community Church outside of Seattle and it won’t quit growing. I call him the reluctant Pastor. Author Breathing New Life into Faith, Colors of Hope (much needed just now as it is a call for Christ-followers to be about mercy justice, and love) and The Map is Not the Journey: Faith Renewed While Hiking the Alps.  Welcome, Richard Dahlstrom.