Saturday, January 31, 2009

Making A Real Change

January is the time of year when people are trying to put into practice all of the New Year's resolutions that they have made. My last blog had something to do with that and it is something I have been thinking about lately. Personally there are a couple of areas I am looking to improve in this year and I have to say that after a month things are going pretty good, but I know for something to be a real change it has to be more than just a temporary thing.
Most of the time when I travel here I use the train. The trains in Germany are really great and they made some changes of their own with the beginning of the New Year. Starting in January we got some new trains, the schedule changed slightly, the ticket machines changed, and even the ticket prices changed. The problem is that one of the main things that people want from the train, punctuality, that has not changed.


Recently the trains have been running late pretty often, like the day I took this picture, and this is where I got my idea about this blog. The German train system is really pretty nice but trains not running on schedule are not so nice. It is easy to change a ticket price or rearrange the schedule but if the train is not on time what does it matter? In our own lives, you can say you want to lose weight this year and get into better physical condition. You can buy books about the subject, you can plan your workout routine and select the proper food to eat - but you still have to actually do something or you will never lose weight! A Christian can talk about wanting to grow spiritually. They can buy a new Bible, make their new Bible reading plan, and tell all their friends at church what they want to do, but they still have to read the Bible!

Too often the changes we want to make end up as nothing more than a few preliminary preparations with good intentions that never really amount to anything. Making a real change means commitment and follow through in the area we are dealing with. Real change is possible in any area of life but we can't just expect it to happen based on our nice ideas. This year I am sure we can all use some improvements so let's make some real changes that will bring lasting results and make us better Christians and better people.