The Mechanics of Change

Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, consistent in both speed and direction, unless either is acted upon by a force greater than itself.

The law is fundamentally about change.

The implications extend well beyond physics.

In fact, we watch this law at work in just about every area of our lives.

We all have situations and circumstances in our lives that we would like to change. We want to change our bodies so we go on a diet and start exercising. We want to change our career so we take new jobs and move to new places. We want to change our relationships so we find new friends or get married or have kids.

When we want to change something about our lives, we simply exert the force of our will and that which has been at rest will spring into motion or that which was in motion will change directions.

While it may seem to work for a time, sooner or later we realize that a deeper change is in order.

We need more than an external change of behavior. We need an internal change of heart.

Our hearts, though, cannot be changed by the force of the will.

We need something greater than ourselves to act upon us, to set our hearts in motion.

God Himself has acted, not by impersonal force, but by personally stepping into history as one of us.

By living the life we should have lived. By dying the death we should have died. By offering to get our still hearts beating again. By shaping us from the moment we receive His forgiveness to the moment we take our last earthly breath.

We cannot encounter Jesus and not change.

How has He changed you?

All In

Willie is a cab driver in Chicago. He’s in his mid-fifties now and has been transporting people all over the city for upwards of twenty years.

I met Willie when he drove me from downtown to the O’Hare International Airport.

We made small talk for a bit. He asked where I was from and what I was doing in Chicago. I asked how long he’d live in the city and how he liked it.

He told me that prior to becoming a cab driver he’d been a professional boxer.

He told me all about his training, his travels, and his career. He talked about the discipline required to stay in peak condition and the drive to be constantly learning and improving.

Then he said something that has stayed with me.

“Boxing takes total commitment. You can’t be lax. If you slack off in training, you’ll get knocked out in the ring. No man can live two lives. Either you’re in or you’re out.”

I’m not boxer, but I still think about that all the time.

I think about what it means to be all in.

I think about whether I’m trying to live two lives – trying to spread my attention and energy in too many directions, trying to do and be more than God has called me to do and be.

I can’t say I’m at risk of getting knocked out on a daily basis – the way Willie was during his boxing career.

But I am at risk of making less of a difference in the world. I am at risk of being less of the person God has created me to be. I am at risk of doing less for the Kingdom of God than God intends.

I want to finish this life with cramping muscles and with lungs gasping for air because I ran so hard after what God called me to. 

I don’t want to live two lives.

I want to be all in.