Stop This Ride! I Want to Get Off! Handling the Relentless Changes of Life as a Baptized Child of God By Rev. Mark Buetow
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. - Hebrews 13:8
Let’s face it: Most of us don’t like change. We don’t like things that make us uncomfortable and
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demand that we alter the way we live. Maybe you had to move in the middle of the school year and suddenly find yourself in a new town and new school with all your friends left behind. Perhaps you’re starting college, far away from Mom and Dad with a stranger for a roommate. Maybe you’re trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces after a nasty break-up. Perhaps you’re learning to live without a parent or brother or sister who died. Sometimes illness forces us to change how we live and what we can do. No, we don’t like change. It takes us out of our comfort zone. The question is: How do we handle change in our lives? How do we deal with our lives being turned upside down and inside out? How do we adapt and move forward, especially when it’s not change we want?
Well, first of all, we are grounded in the one thing that doesn’t change: Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But what sort of same? It’s the sameness of His never leaving you nor forsaking you. That never changes. It’s the unchanging promise that His death and resurrection have answered for your sins. Yes, even your doubt, frustration, and turning away from the Lord and being nasty to others around you because of the changes you face— all of that is covered and washed away by the blood of Jesus. Jesus reminds you of this with His unchanging gifts. Your baptism can’t change. It can’t be undone. At the font, the unchanging Triune God made you His child. You are forever a part of a family that cannot be broken apart or altered, not even by death! There is the Absolution. In
