Out with the Old, In with the New

Change. I hate it. I am a lover of routine (as long as I like the routine). Some people thrive on change, but I am not one of those people. I love the comfortable, the familiar. It's like a worn out pair of pajamas (which happens to be one of my favorite things in the entire universe). Routine and the familiar represents safety to me and I love that. Who doesn't want safety and comfort? But the older I get, and unfortunately I am getting older, I realize more and more that change is inevitable. It comes when you least expect it and least desire it. Just when you settle into a routine, something happens and you have to get used to a new routine. Take the time change for instance. Happens twice a year. My body gets used to one time and then behold, daylight savings time begins. I start a semester with one clinic schedule and then 8 weeks later, I have to get used to a whole new clinic schedule.
I am not the only one who hates change. My dog-child hates it too. Fifer has a toy that he has ripped to shreds. He loves that toy. He sleeps with it, he chews on it, he licks it, he plays fetch with it. However, that toy is really nothing more than a ripped up piece of material now. So, tonight I decided to get him a brand new toy. It is exactly what his chewed up toy was before he destroyed it. It is the same color and everything. But when I threw away his old toy and gave him his new one, he stood at the trash can and cried for his old one. Here I was giving him something better, but he wanted his old piece of crap, ripped up toy.
We are so much like that. We want to hold onto things that aren't important. We want to stay where we are most comfortable instead of embracing the new things that God might have for us. We want to hang onto our habits that aren't pleasing to Him. There have been so many times when I've felt a call on my life to do something in particular that has caused me to have to step out of my comfort zone, out of the familiar and I haven't wanted to do it. Sometimes I didn't answer that call. Sometimes I just stayed put where I was comfortable. But I missed out on something better because of it. I missed out on God's best because I wanted to hang onto my "chewed up toy".
It reminds me of the man in Mark 10 who asked Jesus what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and then follow Him. In vs. 22 it says "The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go." Do you realize what that man gave up for his possessions? Eternal life. Talk about not liking change. This man must have really hated change.
How much do we miss out on because we're still "holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go"?