January 1, 2011

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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I've just made a big change from milk to dark chocolate.

It just happened - MC one day then DC the next day.

Hmm.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not one of those once-you-go...kinda guys.

Jughead and Archie come to mind.

Archie: "There's nothing worse than warm pop."

Jughead: "Yes, there is! No pop!"

Anyway, it's my first big change as I cross over into 2011.

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O.K., that was trivial.

Some changes are harder to make.

My favorite Special Olympics World Golf Champion comes to mind.

Planning to start playing/practicing together a little over five years ago, I said, "O.K., Billy, I'll pick you up at 5:15 a.m."

He said, "I don't get up until later than that."

I said, "Well, if we're gonna play/practice together, I've got to start early because..."

He said, "But I've got my habits."

I said, "Well, if we're gonna play/practice together, you'll have to change your habit of getting up later than..."

We've been playing/practicing together ever since.

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2010 was a big year for me in the, uh, "change" department.

I started wearing contacts for the first time.

When I showed up at the eye guy with my family in the gallery, he said to my wife, "People his age usually can't make the change to contacts."

My wife said, "I don't think he can do it."

My older son laughed as he nodded.

My youngest whispered into my ear, "Daddy, you're always telling people to make changes that are good for you. I know you can do it!"

I've been wearing 'em ever since.

Positive change?

Pictures not necessary.

Then I shaved my head and most of my beard; leaving a nice little patch called a "goatee" by civilians and "biker cut" by, uh, bikers.

My sister was the instigator: "Bobby, you're bald! Deal with it! You look ridiculous with a full beard and no hair on your head. It looks like your head is upside down."

I've been shaving the little hairs that grow on my head and cultivating what can grow on my face ever since.

Negative change?

Pictures available at www.bnnsradio.com and www.koppdisclosure.com.

You be the judge; and if you're like most Democrats/Republicans/mainliners/fundies, you'll feel comfortable in that position.

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Recently, I came across a column called "When People Don't Want to Change" in the Harvard Business Review.

I was waiting to get a tooth pulled.

You know how it is.

I was nervous and ready to read anything; which is why I picked up that journal dating 4/21/08.

Be that as it was, it's by Marshall Goldsmith who gets paid lots of $ to run seminars for would-be or actual money-makers; coaching executives on how to do what he doesn't do like, uh, seminary professors and ecclesiastical bureaucrats who don't do church but tell those who do how to do what they don't do.

He caught my vocational attention: "Your job is to help achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. How do you deal with people who have no desire to change?"

His answer: "I don't."

Explanation: "Have you ever tried to change the behavior of a spouse, partner or parent who had no interest in changing? How did that work out for you?"

Robert C. Gallagher: "Change is inevitable; except from a vending machine."

Recollection: "Sometimes it's better to talk to God about someone than to talk to someone about God."

Continuing, the renowned business guru who has written 30 books that have sold which compelled me to read on since I haven't had a bestseller yet concluded: "Research on coaching is clear and consistent. Coaching is most successful when applied to people with potential who want to improve - not when applied to people who have no interest in changing. This is true whether you are acting as a professional coach, a manager, a family member, or a friend...Your time is very limited. The time you waste coaching people who do not care is time stolen from people who want to change."

Notice any parallels?

Will Rogers: "There are three kinds of men: ones that learn by reading, a few who learn by observation, and the rest of them who have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves."

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God knows Christianity includes changes.

God knows everybody needs to be, uh, born, uh, again in some way if not comprehensively.

God knows there's room for improvement in everybody.

Indeed, anybody who thinks she/he has arrived hasn't begun the journey to self-realization.

Ephesians 4:22-24 is one of a plethora of clear and conclusive revelations compelling changes to confirm conversion to Jesus (cf. Matthew 4:17; 18:1-3; Romans 12; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Surely, the most deceived/deluded people are those who go around saying, "I'm O.K. and you're O.K."

William Blake: "The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."

The truth is, as my buddy Tony likes to say, "I'm not O.K. and you're not O.K. but God says that's O.K. because He loves you just the way you are while loving you too much to leave you just the way you are."

Augustine: "If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself, there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing."

Simply, everybody needs to change for the better as personified in Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture.

Ellen Glasgow: "The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions."

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Conversely, change is bad if it is a move away from better behavior as personified in Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture.

Let me put it another way.

All changes are not good.

Christlike changes are always good; because they always include loving Him by loving like Him which is marked by selflessness, mercy, forgiveness, and unconditional favor.

Anti-Christlike changes are always bad; because they always include darkly inspired impulses/intentions/actions to selfishness, intolerance, irreconcilability, and conditional favor.

The quick course, uh, of course, on positive Christlike changes is found in the red letters of many New Testaments.

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Pop psychology tells us that resistance to change comes from a fear of the unknown or an expectation of loss.

I'm sure that's part of it; which explains an embroidered sign that hangs outside of my study: "Change is good...You first!"

Candidly, I think resistance to change concomitant to Jesus as attested in Holy Scripture is more related to spiritual retardation than emotional or intellectual pathologies; relating more to a person's faith or trust in God than anything else.

For if the change is obviously Christian, then failure to make the change is, uh, unChristian.

Or something like that.

That's why Francis Chan challenges as a way of introducing the "crazy love" of total commitment to God in gratitude for the "crazy love" of God for us in, uh, Crazy Love, "Come with me on this journey. I don't promise it will be painless. Change, as we all know, is uncomfortable. It's up to you to respond to what you read. But you will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same."

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C.S. Lewis often described Biblically Christocentric change as a decision to get on the bus.

Some get on the bus.

Some don't.

Harold Wilson: "He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."

Biblically, historically, and confessionally, the church has often referred to it as the choice between heaven and...

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Blessings and Love!