Change - for the Better?

Some people say that a Change for the Better is a contradiction in terms. In other words that it is impossible for any Change to be for the Better.

But I think that such people only make that statement when they are reasonably content with the way things are at that moment.

When people are in an unpleasant situation then they almost always want some kind of change to occur. For example, if you are feeling cold, then you would like to be warmer.

So whether you are happy about some upcoming change depends not only on the change but also on your current circumstances. If you are too hot already then you don't want to get warmer at all!

Some people are happy with the current state of the Church of Scotland. But I think that people who are happy with the Church's Status Quo don't have much of a vision for what the Church could be.

Jesus gave the church a job to do. He told us to go and make disciples of all people.

Most people in Scotland don't go to any church. This suggests that the Church needs to be different if we are to accomplish what Jesus told us to do. Jesus' commission to us suggests that we should consider the church is more for the people outside the church than it is for the people inside the church.

Perhaps we should be asking the people outside the church how we should be changing to become the kind of church they need us to be.

In my study of Physics I learned that every molecule is moving. Even the molecules that make up a solid object are continually moving. They vibrate back and forward at a speed depending on the temperature of the solid, liquid, or gas. The hotter it is the faster they move. The colder the material the slower the molecules move.

The only way to make something become totally motionless is to cool it down until it reaches Absolute Zero. At that temperature an object has Zero energy and it becomes totally still. In other words it becomes static and unchanging.

Lord Kelvin discovered and defined the temperature of Absolute Zero in 1848. It is -273°C. It is such a significant value that physicists use the Kelvin temperature scale, which defines -273°C as 0K, and 0°C as 273K, and 100°C as 373K, etc.

So the people who want the Church of Scotland to remain unchanging, static, motionless, need to cool themselves down to 0K. At that temperature it wouldn't be very comfortable to sit, stand, and sing, through a standard one hour long Church of Scotland service.

The next time someone in Church asks you if you are OK, you might like to consider whether they are asking about your health, or if they are asking whether you are at Absolute Zero, 0K, OK?