Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:20-49
When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39
This chapter was exactly what I needed this week. There are a lot of changes happening in my life and I fear of change. I learned in Celebrate Recovery that ‘Fear of Change’ is letting go of: the things that define who I am, my coping mechanisms, my sources of comfort, my routines, and my places of escape.
So for me I am letting go of things that define who I am, my piano students. My coping mechanisms tend to be overspending while shopping, and isolating myself. My source of comfort is crawling into bed sleeping endless amounts of time away. My routine was teaching piano which I will no longer be doing in the fall. I still however will be teaching harp but I have taught piano for 16 years. My place of escape, my thoughts and my bedroom.
Sorry to depress you but this is where I was at this week and this verse met me there. I remembered either reading or hearing about how a seed must be pushed into the ground which is a dark and cold place (where I feel like I am now) and then be watered, (it cannot water itself), and grows into something new. “God gives it the new body he wants it to have.” But it has to ‘die’ first.
I am not sure where you are at or if you are struggling with changes in your life but I know that everyone’s lives are always changing. Nothing seems to stay the same for very long anymore. Maybe it’s the trend of instant gratification. I don’t know. But I do know that before we can get a new ‘body’ we must ‘die’ (figuratively of course).
I think I just need to encourage myself more than anything this week and in weeks to come that God does have a plan for me and He will give me a new ‘body’. I can’t wait to see what it looks like but in order for me to allow that to happen I have to let go….of the things I used to know. I encourage you to do the same in order to see what God can do for you with a ‘new body’.
In the clay,
Chantal Dube