Musings on a resounding call for change.

The one-word message from this election year has been CHANGE. A noble call indeed! For far too many, change simply implies something different, doing away with old customs, patterns, traditions, just for the sake of being different. That is a poor excuse for change.

May I suggest that change starts from within. A changed society, indeed a changed culture must be built on changed hearts of individuals within that culture. Never is this kind of change easy. It comes out of struggle, discipline, willpower, prayer, and soul energy. Worthy change comes from God's spirit and power touching the heart and the soul of an individual.

Here is what I see as evidence of real change: from fear to faith, from getting to giving, from greed to generosity, from futility to fulfillment, from words to work, from despair to discipleship, from loathing to loving. Try building a sermon or two by using the above expressions, and the following texts: "I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them" (Ezekiel 11:19); "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17a).

This 300th anniversary year could simply result in polishing the old, and some of that is good, but this special year also must help us faithfully face the future. I regularly remember my dad, Eugene O. Kinsel, resisting singing "'Tis the old-time religion and it's good enough for me." He always said, "The old-time religion is not good enough else this world would be a much better place."

Godly change? Yes!

--Glenn Eugene Kinsel is a volunteer with Brethren Disaster Ministries.

Source: 12/31/2008 Newsline