It’s a good thing to evolve, to change, to adapt, to develop, to grow. The alternative is to stay exactly the same.
There are some people would say there is great virtue is staying the same. Talk of evolving is unappreciated heresy. They already have things all figured out, so there is no need for change. Just hold the line.
I suppose they have their point. There are some very basic human values that should not change even though everything changes around us.
Yet there is so much that should be in a never ceasing state of change. I believe we should keep examining our life to see what should stay, and what should go, and where we should focus. Things need to be tested to see if they are true and to make sure we are not just following some hand-me-down principles.
In matters of faith, I have evolved. I was an insider’s insider. I loved the institutional church. Then there were some catalysts like a couple of pastors with bad attitudes, some church members who wanted their church to stay in its 1950’s mode, some overly possessive church members who fought to hang on to their fiefdom, and people who just didn’t care much about how the uninitiated viewed church. An evolution began. I read books, asked questions, tried things, met opposition, was betrayed, became an outsider, started asking more questions, trying different kinds of churches, winding up more disillusioned. I felt forced to reevaluate everything and find new ways to live out my faith without having to grit my teeth.
The biggest evolution I went through was from being a pastor, to being a former pastor, to being a writer. It’s tough when your identity is swept out from under you.
But now, here I am a writer. As I loved being a pastor, I love being a writer. I started out blogging about faith issues to help me sort out all of the changes I was going through, then I enjoyed the challenge of blogging on other topics, then I felt these ideas needed to be put together so I wrote a couple of books about faith issues. The second of which is about to be published. I have also compiled a book of articles written about topics other than faith and I have written a novel which was the most fun of all. These, I hope, will also be published soon. Now I have just begun work on anther novel.
All of my evolution was unplanned for one reason or another I was compelled to change, to evolve.
