Hutchens A funny thing happened at the lake cottage the other day. It was a beautiful day, and the dogs and I were enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. I was on my cell phone talking to a friend, when the dogs started barking and took off running around the cottage next door. I quickly got off the phone, went looking for the dogs, and realized that they had run up the steep 15 foot incline across the road, chasing something.

Now being middle aged, overweight, and out of shape, I knew there was no way I was going to go up that same incline. Instead, I went further down the road, looking for a place that I could scale, breathing threats against my "cute" little monsters. As I get to the crest of this lower incline, I trip over barbed wire buried under the overgrown grass, and punctured my leg. Now bleeding, breathing hard, and dressed quite inappropriately for chasing dogs in a field of mud (it had rained hard that morning), I find myself facing acres of cornfields. I eventually realized that there was no way I was going to be able to give chase to my runaway dogs. Needless to say, the rest of the story is as equally hilarious as this part! In fact, if someone had videotaped the episode, I have no doubt it would have won the top prize of America's Funniest Home Videos!

This whole episode set me to thinking about how change is indeed a part of every aspect of our lives. Certainly the most obvious is our bodies. It usually takes some kind of "adventure" or "accident" before we realize that even with our best intentions, at 50 our bodies cannot do what it was capable of when we were 30. This change means that adjustments must be made in our attitudes and endeavors. The same is true of our professions. As of July 8 my husband and I are no longer pastors here in Carroll County. We have accepted a call up in "lake country" - no, not Minnesota or Wisconsin, but northeastern Indiana. This change, after 12 years here, means adjustments in many things - what gets moved and what doesn't; juggling two places of residence, until a new home is bought; learning new names and ways of being a congregation in a new place; the list goes on.

The same is true of our life in Jesus Christ. Change is a given when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. When Jesus is Lord of our life, the Holy Spirit is at work everyday changing our hearts and minds to more closely resemble the heart and mind of Jesus. Oh, and what glorious changes they are. These changes can occur at any age and at any stage in our lives. It doesn't matter if we are middle aged, young or old; overweight, underweight, or just right; out of shape, in shape or somewhere in between. Now, we can undo these changes he makes in our lives, and go right on doing things as we want, and as we have always done them. We can ignore the ways of our Lord, and stay stuck in the ways of this world. Eventually, however, we will be faced with the reality that the world's ways will get us nowhere but facing acres and acres of "hell". This is where the grace and love of God is most evident - no matter when we come to our senses, he is still there waiting with open arms.

Change in all areas of our lives is inevitable - how we react to that change is our choice.

(As of July 7, Rev. Tom Mc- Shannock and Rev. Sandy Hutchens are no longer at Faith Lutheran Church in Deer Creek. They have accepted a call to La- Grange.)