change takes forever

...at least it seems like it.

(If you're like me and don't like long, wordy posts, I've provided some Cliffsnotes at the end.  This post is seriously all-over-the-place-random.  So feel free to scroll on down.)

(You're welcome. Haha.)

I want to be _____________.

I want to go _____________.

When will we _______________?

How will we __________________?

You fill in the blanks; surely we all have multiple answers that could fill in the space.

We are all changing.  And if we aren't changing, we're thinking about change.

Sometimes it takes a few days for the change to occur...yet more often, it seems, it takes years.

I know I sound kind of vague... I haven't completely worked this out in my head yet.  But I digress.

Watch this.

Pain.  It's everywhere.  How can it be possible for a second-grader to even think of taking a knife to his own arm because he sees himself as worthless?  But it is possible.  And it happens all the time.

Why do children eat rotten food out of garbage cans?  How can mothers take their unborn child's life?  Why do husbands explode in anger at the women they once loved undyingly?  Drugs, violence, hatred, sex trafficking, anger, fear, theft, abuse, selfishness...on and on the list goes.  You don't need me to remind you of all the pain in your world.

Yet...it continues.  All the time, everywhere we go.  The pain in this world seems like an insurmountable problem to solve.  No matter how many bandaids we put on the cut, it just keeps bleeding harder.

But maybe it's as simple as changing ourselves myself.

Last week, I met a new person who would become semi-permanent in my life.  I thought nothing of it at first, but after a couple of hours there began to develop a sort of unspoken feud between the two of us.  All the while, I was trying to exercise 1 Corinthians 13.  I was trying to stay in love towards her, trying to see life from her POV.  She obviously had a lot of pain in her life, judging from what little I knew about her, and I wanted to be maybe help some of that pain, not add to it.  I wanted to show her the love of Christ and be a friend to her.

Wasn't working.

Long and short of it, I gave it to God.  I asked that we could be friends, not enemies.  I asked Him to change me into His likeness and love with His love.  So this morning before I left, He had me pray Luke 6:35-36 over myself:  "Love your enemies.  Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.  And your reward will be great... He is kind to the unthankful and evil... Be merciful as He is merciful."

So that's what I did.  And you know what?  Today, there was something different about her.  Or maybe there was something different about me.  Or maybe both.

Because now we're besties.  You'd have thought we've been friends for years.

Change takes a long time.

Except for when it doesn't, because then it's fast.

There's a lot of pain in this world.

If you want to change someone's pain into joy, you have to change yourself first.

God will help you change yourself, and then He'll work a miracle on your behalf.

He loves you like that.