Burden & Beauty
In the popular 2019 animated Disney movie Frozen II, a snowman named Olaf was lying down on a blanket in a pumpkin patch in the middle of a forest filled with vibrant greenery. He, experiencing the miracle of not melting, turns to another character Anna and says, “I’m just living the dream Anna. Ah…how I wish this could last forever.”
Abruptly, a red maple leaf floats its way down from a tree and Olaf grabs it saying, “and yet change mocks us with her beauty.”
In our lives, change has this way of being burdensome and beautiful at the same time. For Olaf, this vibrant greenery he wished could last forever was met by the burdensome reality that the season was changing. Fall was here and winter was on the way. Yet, there is this irony to change that although it feels burdensome and terrifying, it mocks us with its beauty.
The departure of the vibrant greenery of summer will be quickly overshadowed by the beautiful colors of fall and the pure white canvas of winter. Yet, rather than clinging to the season we’re leaving, the only way that we are able to appreciate its beauty is by changing and adjusting as the seasons change.
Brothers and sisters, as we continue to embark on this vision series, God is going to be changing us by His Spirit through His Word to become more like Christ. God is going to be reorienting our hearts and minds to be more of what He wants for His church than what we selfishly may want. As the mission and vision of our hearts aligns with God’s, that is going to naturally bring about change.
Let our hearts acknowledge this truth of the one who brings about this change: “Yet Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we all are the work of your hands.” (Isaiah 64:8)
My encouragement to you is to embrace what the Potter is doing in your heart that may initially feel terrifying and burdensome, so that we together can see change mock us with its beauty as Glennville FBC as a body becomes more like Christ and the church that God desires us to be.
Love you, mean it! Pastor John
