Week 2: “If you do not change, you can become extinct.”

The cheese is missing! Did someone move it? Was it stolen? Did someone eat all of it? What am I to do? Should I check back every day to see if more cheese appears? How long should I keep checking back? Should I begin the search for more cheese?

In the book Who Moved My Cheese, the mice and the little people are faced with a dilemma—the cheese IS MISSING!!!!!!!! The mice immediately begin the search for new cheese. The two little people approach the dilemma quite differently from the mice. Hem and Haw go back every day to where the cheese use to be. They wonder who moved the cheese. They keep hoping the cheese will be returned. They complain… but still no cheese. They are faced with a decision—go search for cheese for keep coming back to the same place, hoping that new cheese appears. Hem and Haw are faced with a choice. They can keep doing the same thing… and eventually die. Or, they can be transformed (changed) and go on the search for new cheese.

Text: 2 Corinthians 3:17-19 and Romans 12:2.

These texts talk about our need to be transformed by the Holy Spirit as we walk with Christ. As individuals, we need to be constantly undergoing a transformation process. We will not be complete until we go to be with the Lord. If we don’t change we will become like one of the little people in the book. We will keep doing the same thing, the same way, even if we dry up spiritually. We will complain. We will dig in our heels and demand that things go back to “the way they were.” This isn’t scriptural!

As a church, we need to be undergoing a transformation process. No church is perfect. Change within the context of a church is more traumatic than change with an individual. It is more difficult to bring about change with a church or denomination. But change we must! If we don’t change we will become extinct. The PCUSA is a great example of this whole issue. We keep fighting the same battles, hoping that things will change. We keep complaining about the same things, hoping that things will change. Things basically keep staying the same. If we keep this up for twenty more years the PCUSA will be extinct. Oh, there will still be churches with “Presbyterian” in their name. The denomination as we have known it will no longer exist.

Will we begin look for the “new cheese” that God has waiting for us?