Change sounds good. Being endowed to make choices that can bring about positive change feels great. Changing for everlasting… euphoric!
I’m writing today as a contributor to the Christian Writers Blog Chain. Our theme for this month is “Change.†Christianwriters.com is an excellent place to network if you’re a Christian writer or author.
“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… the power to choose, to respond, to change.” Stephen Covey
WoW, that’s powerful stuff!! These 4 human endowments, or natural abilities, are up to us. We have them and utilize them as we please. If we are focused on doing the right stuff the four endowments work for us, keeping us out of trouble and in His good graces.
How grateful I am to see the power of human will at work in the spirit of change, in my world and also in the people who fill my close circles… when we put our mind to it, we have the ability to change… improve… grow.
The power to change is our most omnipotent choice! (Click to Tweet)
Just think about it… whenever we can modify or alter our behavior, and do so repeatedly so that we develop a new behavior pattern, we’re exercising our free will, through self-awareness, to change. If that takes the influence of our conscience and a pinch of creative imagination, we’ve utilized all 4 endowments in the process.
OK, so I have an example… the HB and I share this pretty crazy connection, it’s like being cut from the same piece of cloth. That makes life very interesting because we share an electric passion that you just don’t find very often in life. Well, there’s an up side and a down side to this… and one thing we’re finding out is that we need to get to know each other better, just as friends. This is very important if we want to carry us to the next level… to a deeper, more meaningful intimacy and everlasting (i.e., the longest term). Why? Well, whenever I think about the world and everlasting, I wonder what we’ll carry with us from this world to the next. This connection that I share with HB… if it is truly a gift from the Holy Spirit, as it seems, will we take that with us? Or, is it just something to enjoy and share while here on earth? I have no idea what the future holds, and so this is a conscious choice as believers… a choice or a change for us. So we had some tidying up to do…  in a nutshell, it goes back to the connection between harmony and morality… focusing on friendship for us means we have something we know we’ll share the rest of our lives here… and that’s relevant to our everyday lives… now and in the future…
Let’s face it, we all have some tidying up to do. We all have some choices, or changes that we could make, right? Once we fess up to this (i.e., have self-awareness), we can move forward to the next hurdle… do I want to change? Often this is the question of conscience… the question of do I really care? This is the point at which we often find out who… and who’s we really are… what’s motivating us… what are priorities are. Next up, exercising our independent will… do I REALLY want to do this deep down in my soul? Will power… we can do most anything if we really set our mind to it… yep, just keep focused on everlasting and that will help ;-)… finally, we may feel the need to use our creative imagination to keep moving forward over the next hurdle… and the one after that. Sure, I can make a short-term change… but will it really stick? Time will tell…
Change sounds good. Being endowed to make choices creating positive change feels great. Changing for everlasting is euphoric! (Click to Tweet)
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Q: Do you believe that change is the most powerful choice we can make? What change have you made in your world that has proven most valuable?
Christian Writers Blog Chain
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This was a great post, Chris. Isn’t it wonderful that God has endowed us with these ‘natural abilities’ – these things that set us apart from the other living creatures…
lol… yea, I wonder if the life of a dog or ant though is pretty sweet sometimes, so much simpler… but, then again, I’m very grateful to just be an average Joe 😉
I love your posts, Chris – they make me look closely at myself and my relationships and how I can make them better.
My hubby is the big “change master” – he gets everyone up off their duffs and moving. We all kick and scream but in the end we’re better off. I regularly thank God for making me teachable (and for giving me Jim!).
Our latest change in motion is to downsize from 4000 square feet to about half that size. We decided it last week and Jimmie would like to list the house this month after we’ve gotten rid of half our stuff this week. Yeah, change will be good if I survive it! Lol.
oh wow, getting rid of stuff is really painful, isn’t it! Having to decide what we can and can’t live without… and having a spouse reflect on the same stuff (and what we can and can’t live without)… lol… this sounds like a very interesting experience Carol!
Hmm. . . I’m giving thought to the question, “What change have you made in your world that has proven most valuable?” About a year-and-a-half ago, it was very clear that God wanted me to stop working from home at a job I’d been doing for 6-1/2 years. I was terrified of taking that step of faith, but my husband encouraged me to be obedient and trust God with the rest. It was the very best decision for our family, allowing me to grow in ministry, and be a much better (and healthier) wife and mom. I think it’s so important that we discern whether changes are God-directed. If they are, He’ll help us through.
Sounds like one of those really scary, Oh WoW decisions… for me, that’s how God has built up my faith. Thank you for sharing this Heather!
Thanks Chris – it’s good to think about what we can change, if the Lord is giving us the strength.
Good thought Bill, I like that… if He is involved 🙂
Great post Chris. Change is scary, sometimes we choose to change and sometimes change chooses us. Always though God has a plan and uses that change (made by us or others) for good. It can be scary sometimes. But when it happens, I just try my best to turn it over to the Lord and rest on faith.
Very wise Neil, His plan and way is perfect!!
The most valuable change I made was when I chose to turn my life over to Christ. And when you stop to think about it, that’s the only difference between us and the other sinners out there. Jesus loves all of us, gave His life for all of us, but it comes down to a choice, to follow Him. And that choice involves change. Great post.
Good stuff Deborah, that change… accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior… and putting Him first in our lives is pretty scary sometimes. Whenever our faith overruns the questions we can turn it all over to Him. Love your thoughts on this, making me smile today, thanks for sharing 🙂
Checking myself now. Thanks.
Thank you for stopping by Stephanie and for sharing here!
Great post, Chris. It’s definitely better when we cooperate with the changes God wants to introduce into our lives. The most interesting and blessed times in my life have been because of changes God initiated, starting with my salvation. I’ve lived in another country and another part of my own country, changed career fields a couple of times, gotten a master’s degree, and lived in a FEMA trailer for 14 months – all things I didn’t plan for myself, and all experiences that have deepened my faith and given me fodder for my writing. Much as I’d love to put down roots in a home, job and family (husband and children, God apparently considers such permanence detrimental to my growth in Him. And so, I’ll keep on changing…
You know it’s funny how God will work sometimes… I know for me, he often will use my weaknesses to draw me in closer. It sounds like you’ve been through some crazy experiences, but keeping close to Him is where it’s at so far as learning and growing. Thanks for sharing Traci!