Winter, spring, summer or fall. Seasons change. Fall is here and Summer is over. Rick says he is not sure God intended for there to be our current change of seasons when the world started in the Garden of Eden. God created a paradise. Rick would want one season and that is summer. Paradise to Robin means life and winter is dead. She imagines in the Garden of Eden all the trees and flowers were in bloom all the time. Rick does believe though that God intended for there to be change.
Over the summer, Rick met a man who had committed a crime and landed in prison. He needed a radical change in his life. He made a vow with God. If God would do something, then he would do something in return. He would repay God. In their conversation, the man confessed that he hadn’t held up his end of the vow. He said God did His part but I didn’t do mine. He wanted to but didn’t and that guilt has been over his head for a long time. Rick lead this man to a place where he took a step of faith toward Jesus. He seemed sincere as he left that day that he was going to make some changes in his life.
In order for a person to really make changes, there has to be some decisions made. There really needs to be a changing of direction for your life. The word repentance means to turn, to go the other way. In a car, we call that a U-turn. The most radical change you can make in your life is what Barry McGuire said in his song, “A funny thing happened on my way to hell, I got saved, saved, saved.” We need to make a turn, find God and move towards Him. There is only one path to God and we need to get on that path.
When a person becomes a Christian and becomes a brand new creature, Rick recalls the verse that the old things have passed away and behold all things have become new. Although the word change is not in that verse, that is the most radical change that a life can take. One day you are going one way and it is the wrong way. And it becomes so evident when you make that turn, when you make a commitment to follow Christ and you become a Christian, when you begin to live in the new; it is a huge change.
Maybe seasons weren’t the original intention of God; but after the fall of man there were seasons. God created the seasons and seasons can be a great metaphor for life. Seasons can represent hope. If you are feeling down because of fall and winter, they are not going to last forever. It is a season. If you are in a dead or cold season, hang in there, don’t give up because Spring and Summer are coming. There is hope because new life is coming.
We know we need to change in our heart and in our mind. People make yearly resolutions because they know deep inside that change is needed. It is an inward feeling. We inherently know that we need to make a change in some area.
Rick says as he gets older, the more hopeful he gets. He knows there is help and hope; but without change, what is help and hope? If you cannot receive the help and hope that is being offered to you then what do you really have? You have to become a receiver and an asker. When Jesus says, “Behold,” He is saying take a look at what I am doing. “Behold, I stand at the door of your heart and knock.” Jesus wants to come in. He will not burst through the door. Whoever opens the door, He will come in. That is the most radical change that a person can ever go through.
There are many who won’t open the door to Jesus because they are afraid that Jesus will ask them to make changes that they do not want to make. The answer is that yes, He probably will ask us to make changes. But Jesus does it in a way that is loving and caring. He knows where you are isn’t where you can be. He will do everything to move you to that place. Change is good, they call it sanctification, to be set apart for Him. Change is definitely a part of a radical life.
