Changes

I was recently showing some of my Korean youth group kids pictures of myself when I was their age. I felt old. Man, I was actually skinny once. They said I still looked the same, just a bit older, fatter, taller. My reply was "I like to be consistent."

I take that back. I love consistency. I love men of God who stand up for what is right and don't change their message because people get their feelings hurt by the Word of God. (Come on, people, it's a two edged sword, did you think your flesh wouldn't be hurt by it?) I love when young people choose to go to a Bible study on a Friday night because they know that that is where they belong. I hate alcohol because it changes the people I love and care about into something that they are not- addicts, fools, aggressive. I love when Pastors have the guts to stand up against things that would harm their congregation and tell people it's wrong.

My parents always tried to teach me not to fall for the new fads- remember Pokemon cards? I had twelve of them. They were duplicates that my friend had and gave to me. One of the hardest decisions of my early childhood was to throw them away. I'm so glad I did.

Occasionally, I have the chance to reconnect with old friends. I find these times fascinating, not because I can see how much they have changed, quite the contrary! Actually, it seems to me that the more I run into old friends, the more I notice that they haven't changed.

I have changed.

Wait.

That doesn't fit.

Why am I changing?

I love consistency.

Have I really changed?

I guess I have.

Well, parts of me have.

I see my Christian life like a staircase. God is leading me up it, and with every step I take, I leave something behind and gain something new. I can look back and see all that I have left behind, but it doesn't compare to what I have now. I see the Pokemon cards waaaaaaay off in the distance, down toward the bottom of the staircase. I see stupid jokes a little further up. I see the search for a girlfriend after that. Looking at my current step, I see ministry. I see two youth groups. I see an understanding of things I could barely grasp way down toward the bottom of the stair case. What will happen as I move up the staircase? I don't know. God knows. He is with me on it and in it. Through God consistently leading me, there has been a continual growth in who I am as a believer. The dross is being skimmed from the top of the gold God is refining in my life.

It seems to me, after writing all of this, that character is developed through consistency, and that's what I really love. If I consistently base my decision-making on the Word of God then my actions will be based on the character of God and that's when a consistent character is developed in me. My view on Pokemon cards changed because I saw the absorbing and addicting effect they had on my friend. It was a conscious choice to leave them behind. This decision solidified an area of consistency in  my life where decisions would have to be made later on. If my view on alcohol ever changes, so too will that part of my character that was developed by the simple act of throwing away Pokemon cards. I pray that that lesson is never forgotten.

What do I really love about those men who don't cow to a world that claims it's hurt? What do I love about a kid who skips going out to eat with his friends to stay and hang out at school on a Friday? It's the gold that is shining through the dross. It's the character that has been developed on their own staircases.

The last thing I will say before I turn off my computer for the night is this: Facebook is a master of inconsistency. I see it all the time. People can have one political view one day and another the next. They can be Bible thumping, hard-nosed Christians one day and then leave the church the next. We live in an inconsistent world and media is a sounding board. I saw a sounding board once, it was in an old church. It was a large rectangle that jutted out from the wall above the pulpit and caused the speaker's voice to project forward toward his audience with little to no extra exertion on the part of the speaker. It's an ingenious invention used in a time before electronic amplification. Now, we have the internet. Now, we use technology to say whatever we want, whenever we want- it's 11:44 on a Tuesday night and I'm using it to say what I want.
Think about the original purpose of a sounding board, though. Its only purpose was so more people could hear the Word of God. Fascinating. Is that how I use my digital sounding board? Does my sounding board reflect the character that God has developed in me?