Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I was cleaning the house a few weeks ago and found a few containers of loose change. Adding that change to the glass of change already on my dresser added up to about 10 pounds of loose change. Loose change is like free money. I started rolling it last night and I am up to $36 dollars so far. I figure I will be up near $50 when complete. Of course while rolling the change, David Bowie’s Changes kept playing in my mind. The chorus goes like this:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

Then the thought occurred that the only constant in life is change. We grow up, get married, start a family, grow old, life continues, things change before we know it. In 2014 I had at least 6 graduations and a wedding (not mine). Where has the time gone? Being a bachelor I think I don’t notice the passage of time as much without children growing up in the house. My friends with children have constant reminders of the passage of time. I don’t always see that. But this year many friends have kids graduating high school and I remember the kids when there were 4, 5, 8, and in one case a newborn. The passage of time has really hit me.    Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 says it well:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Defined

As I sit at my desk and type this essay I can look up and see my Bachelor’s degree in Math-Physics from Fredonia State. Underneath it is a graduate certificate for an NSBA Steel Bridge design course. On the wall behind me are my Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and my Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Buffalo.  On my desk at work is my New York State Professional Engineer’s License. While I worked hard for these degrees and Professional credentials, and I am proud of them, they do not define me. I’ll tell you what defines me.

Twice in 1 Corinthians Paul states I was bought with a price. (1 Cor 6:20 and 7:23). What price and who bought me? Paul answers in Galatians 

^{3 “}Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  - Galatians 1:3-5^[1]

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20 ^[2]

Christ bought us by his death and reconciled us to God. We were crucified with Him.  If we profess to be Christians, i.e. followers of Christ, our lives are not defined by what we do, how much money we make, etc etc. Our lives are defined by what Christ did for us on the cross. That is where we were redeemed and our life started.

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. ²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of^a your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation^[3]- Colossians 1:19-22

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,^a through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.^[4] – Romans 3:22-26

My thoughts as we start a new year is to remember what defines us and focus on that, and cast off all that hinders. For 2015 one of my life verses is Joshua 24:15 as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Ga 1:3-5). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

^[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Ga 2:20). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

^a Or minds, as shown by

^[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Col 1:19-22). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

^a 25Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin

^[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Ro 3:22-26). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.