Seasons of change

Most of us have received that phone call or gotten a word that changes everything. I remember such a call early Sunday morning March 2, 2002.

When a pastor’s phone rings at 3:00 a.m., its never good news. I rushed to the hospital thirty minutes away to meet the parents that had just lost their only child. She was killed by a drunk driver on her way home from a college basketball game.

Brittany grew up in the church I was pastor of and her parents had served with us as youth pastors. That day their world changed.

Change can come very abruptly or can come over time but change will come.

Change can challenge our faith. Change can cause us to question the things we think we believe. Change will ultimately reveal if we fully trust God or not.

Change can leave us feeling very vulnerable.

I have been friends with Brittany’s parents for 30 years now. When I learned a few years ago that Brittany’s father had died while at work, I was completely devastated. He had worked very hard and was close to retirement.

He and Brittany’s mother had so many plans for traveling and enjoying the new season on their horizon. I used to feel obligated to try and explain why?

Why would God allow this to happen?

After all, his mother in-law was being treated for cancer at the time, why would God let one family experience so much tragedy?

I’ve gained the wisdom and confidence over the years to admit, I just don’t know. God’s ways are high above ours, He sees what we can not. He knows what we do not comprehend. He is in possession of a plan that is beyond our ability to imagine.

One thing that I am certain of is, change will continue. The school I went to is now an empty lot. The old house Angie and I rented when we’re newly married has since been torn down.

There have been 11 presidents in my lifetime, Angie and I have owned 21 different automobiles in 43 years. Change cannot be avoided, only dealt with.

God invites us to trust him. He is looking much further down the road than we can see. He knows the best is yet to be experienced by us.

Through faith in God we can yield ourselves to the seasons of change and remember that with each earthly winter, there will be a heavenly spring! God’s love is not diminished by disease or death.

The scripture speaks to us of a wonderful change that will surely come to us who believe.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15: 51 & 52 NKJV

I have missed my friend and I continue to pray for his family. Change had brought completion and another earthy journey ended. Winter has come, but then Spring!

May God keep you through every season and may you always know the comfort of His love.

Reynolds is the senior pastor of Solid Rock Pentecostal Church of God, 2745 State Route 29 N., Sidney.

Originally published in the Sidney Daily News on November 23, 2024. Read it there.