Autumn-The Season of Chage

 Since I cannot see the change of autumn with leaves turning colors in the trees and creating a beautiful landscape, I have become obsessed with pumpkin spice. Living in Southern California, I know it is the season of autumn with all the pumpkin spice lattes, bakery items, and Trader Joe’s delightful foods that add pumpkin into it. We have one street in Los Angeles where the trees change colors. The weather is not cool, as we are experiencing a small heat wave. So, we rely on the treats that give our physical bodies comfort. 

As much as I love summer, the pumpkin spice lattes have given me a reason to look forward to autumn. My favorite season is summer. As a young person and now as a teacher, it is a season of rest and fun. When autumn comes, we are back in the dull routine of school, work, and fun comes on the weekends. If I’m being honest, what really scares me about autumn is the idea that change is coming. Even though I am someone who likes change or rather the end result of change, like everyone else, I do not like the process of change. 

Change comes into our lives at all seasons, but autumn reminds us that change must come so that we can grow. When the leaves fall from the trees, and the weather becomes cooler (in some parts of America), we begin to prepare ourselves for a new season. God has given us the seasons to remind us that we must change so we can grow. 

If every season was summer, most people would not be productive. We would become content and comfortable. Once something comes along that disrupts our comfort, we whine and cry out to God wondering where he is. He’s right where he always is. God doesn’t change because God doesn’t need to grow. We must change so we can grow. 

Change is painful because it leads us into the unknown, but we can lessen the pain with changing our attitude about change. We must understand that change is necessary for us to grow. Children change as they grow. They grow so fast. They don’t complain about the growth and changes until adults create the complaints for them. Children face the growth eagerly with anticipation that the result will be amazing. Imagine if as adults we had that same attitude. 

If we faced change in our relationships that it will be amazing if we change our habits, we will be willing to change habits. If we faced change in careers or jobs that it will be great in the end, we would enjoy the process of finding a new career. If we faced change in the church that the result will be amazing with more people coming to Jesus, we will see more people come to Jesus. It’s not about changing the process or methods. It’s about changing our hearts to allow God to work with us with the change. 

We must be ready to change. We must change our hearts from an attitude of arrogance to humility. We must be willing to allow change into our lives so that we can influence others. We don’t have to change our moral values or our theology. We can, however, change how we think about those who have different moral values and theology than us. Instead of arguing and complaining, especially online, we can allow others to teach us how they came to their ideas of theology and morals. 

For the past few years, I have had a change of heart about how to treat those who think differently from me politically. I listen to their point of view. If I ask questions, I try to frame them with a heart of learning and not a heart of bashing. This has become a huge change for me. I post less on social media, as I have discovered that many people do not respond to sarcasm or cynicism. Besides, I have also learned that those two actions are unbecoming for healthy relationships. 

We must change our attitudes of how we see people. We must see others as fellow human beings. Jesus saw people for their humanity. He didn’t excuse or overlook their sins, but he saw their humanity. Imagine the power the church would have over the world if we saw the humanity in people, especially those who believe and think differently than us. It would be a beautiful world. The world is waiting and watching for Christians to take a step forward. Let us step forward and change our hearts to see the humanity of people. 

The process of seeing the humanity of people will be allowing the deadness of our words to drop and cease. We will get tired. We will have to cool down from the emotions, but in the end, as we see people meet Jesus, it will be worth it. Our goal was never to have better morals than others. It was always to bring people into the presence of Jesus. If we don’t do that, then the words that we use are unnecessary. Let’s make a change and change the world with us. 

The Fighting on Social Media and Christians.

I am just as guilty as anyone else who gets into a nonsensical argument on social media that will not even make a dent of a difference in the world. As much as I attempt to stay away, I find myself falling for another trap and getting involved in arguments that are useless. When I continued to see this discourse and how it is affecting people’s images of others, I decided to ponder upon it. Then, I saw a robot or what some consider a “bot” stirring up controversy on a hot-button issue. It’s bad enough that politicians and people who have the time to spend all day on social media stir up trouble, and now, we must be aware that some of those are just robots. So, why do we fall for it? 

Someone somewhere is controlling the atmosphere. Without being a psychologist, they also understand the dynamics that pull people into commenting on issues of which they are passionate. There it is. They find our passions. They know from history how people will respond when our passions are being attacked. It’s fine to defend our passions. What we must begin to understand is that because we are passionate about an issue doesn’t mean that we are experts or know the full truth or are empathetic to those whose passions may be different or opposite of ours. 

I have discovered in recent times that everyone is an expert…about everything. Take an issue and the next thing you know, they know every detail about it, or so they think. Just because a church, a political party, or a news outlet aligns with your views, does not make it correct or you an expert. Is anyone besides Jesus a true expert? Didn’t we learn during the lockdowns that experts can be wrong? You can have knowledge about a subject, but that doesn’t mean you are an expert. We must become humble and acknowledge that we may not know everything about everything. 

Instead of being experts, we must become learners. When we discover an issue in the world that bothers us, we must research what the truth is with that issue. Once we discover all the details, we realize that not only are we not experts about an issue, but we may have been wrong. Whether we discover if we are right or wrong, we must search for the truth. Without truth, we sound ignorant because we bought into the lie. With those lies, we insult people. Truth is essential to squash the disunity in our society, especially on social media.  

For centuries, people have been searching for truth. When Jesus told Pilate that every one of the truth testifies that Jesus is king, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Pilate didn’t understand truth because he lived by his truth instead of the truth. We cannot just spew our truth, which is based on our life experiences. We all have unique life experiences. We all have lived within our own upbringings and cultures. That creates a diverse society. What we must begin to understand is that other people have lived other experiences. We must begin to learn from others. If we are continuous learners, we will discover the truth over what we perceive to be true. 

When an issue arises in society, instead of jumping on the side of your political or religious views, research the subject. Find the truth. Religious leaders have been wrong. They misuse the Bible to force people to obey their standards. When you research the subject, you discover information that is not in the media. You discover information that has been eliminated from the public view, which should be concerning. The truth will set you free. It sets us free from getting into the debates because we know the truth. It sets us free from misunderstandings because we know what the truth is. Once we know the truth about an issue, we then can understand other people and our empathy grows. 

When we are followers of Christ, we know we don’t have to get into the petty debates because we understand that Jesus has room for everyone. Since Jesus has room for everyone, so can we. We don’t have to water down the Bible or the theology of Jesus. We must take a walk in the path of someone else. Most of us do not know what it is like to live in a different country other than America. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, we must admit that we have no idea what life is like in a country with living standards that are different from ours. 

If we admit that we don’t understand the living standards of people in other countries, we can admit that we don’t know what it is like to live the lives of others in our own communities. Everyone has their own peculiarities. Each person is an individual. Without empathy, we are rude and unkind. The fighting breaks friendships because we didn’t take the time to understand the other person and his or her struggle. 

We as Christians must do better. It is one of the factors that is driving people away from the church. Who wants to be involved with a group of people who are perfect and know everything about everything? Jesus didn’t work with the perfect. Research the way his disciples behaved, and you will realize that Jesus had empathy for humans, and He set the perfect example for us to have empathy for others. 

Take time this week to research an issue that you are passionate about. Go beyond the first topic on the Internet. Dig deep and have conversations with people who are dealing with those issues. Instead of jumping on a bandwagon with the group that you agree, take a stroll in the other lane, and discover why people may think differently from you. 

It all comes to the point that we must have love and respect for human beings. No one human is the same as the other. We are not clones. Some of us refuse to be put into a box with the clones that people try to create. Let us live the passage in 2 Timothy 2. “Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But reject foolish and ignorant disputes because you know that they breed quarrels. The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of THE truth.” (2 Timothy 2:22-25; CSB) Let us pursue righteousness, flee from quarrels, and be led to knowledge of THE truth.