Keep the Change

Do you remember back in the day—I’m talking about junior-high school—when you went to the skating rink? Did anyone go roller skating? “Couples only, couples only.” Does that bring back memories?

How about this? “You put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about. You do the hokey-pokey, and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.”

I love that song. Let’s stand and do that together. Come on. Everyone, we’re going with the right foot first, okay? “Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about. You do the hokey-pokey, and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.” You sound great!

You know, when it comes to change; when it comes to transforming our lives, isn’t it true that a lot of us just put our right foot in and kind of do the hokey-pokey, and we don’t really get involved in deep and everlasting change? Isn’t it so true? We change the exterior as opposed to the interior. We get stuck in the superficial as opposed to those significant changes.

“I need to change.” We all would admit that. Yet, it’s sort of paradoxical. Fellowship Church Ed Young shows that change only occurs when we come to the end of our efforts, and when we throw up our hands and say, “God, I can’t.” Isn’t that interesting? Change happens when I say, “I can’t.”

Pastor Ed Young tells us that God, who does not change, is all about change. Change is from the outside. It comes from the outside in. Because when we say, “I can’t;” when we open the lid of our lives and invite Jesus to come in, this exchange takes place. We exchange our guilt for his grace, our failures for his forgiveness, our self-centeredness for the savior of the world.