When God hits the reset button

Don’t you wish you had a reset button? When life is on overload, when everything threatens to shut down, wouldn’t it be great to just start over?

Or, how about a renew switch at the start of the new year – something to make the old disappear and instantly bring in the new and relevant?

Some days, when I reflect on my journey, I’m amazed where God has taken me. Other times, I wish I could start over; hit that red reset button!

In the many experiences of my life, there’s a common theme of change – pushing for it, managing it, being the recipient of it. The desire for change comes from the realization that the status quo will no longer accomplish the goals or intended outcomes of my life.

Now, I’m totally fine with change as long as I can control it. In fact, I love it when I can arrange and guide it. When God hits reset or renew, however, it’s considerably more challenging.

Reset buttons come with built-in systems of shutting down, cooling-off, going back to “normal.” So, for the last year I feel as if my life has been on hold. I’m not really doing what I’m passionate about or what I’ve trained for. Sometimes it’s lonely, and quiet.

Nearly all the great leaders in Scripture were given a reset. Abraham took a long walk west; Moses found himself in a desert; David hid in caves; Esther was taken captive; Jesus wandered in the wilderness; Paul was behind bars.

I need these stories to survive change. I see in them changes that led to greater productivity, a more precise focus of the person’s life’s purpose, and a greater sphere of influence that followed. These stories renew in me a willingness to be patient with God’s work in me (Philippians 1:6).

Jeremiah wrote (29:11) to the Jews who were taken captive into Babylon (this was their reset/renew button): “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’ ” (NLT).

Where are you at the start of this new year? Would you like to reset your hunger cravings, or renew friendships gone sideways? Begin again with finances or an exercise program? Are you considering a re-work of your business or career? It’s in the desire to reset or renew that God goes to work.

Change is growth

We can embrace change (including God’s work in us) or we can choose to fight it (including what God wants to reset in us). Change is as normal as growth. In fact, it is growth! It’s designed to help us live up to our greater potential.

The Mennonite Brethren conference has been making changes as well, to more fully live out the purposes we believe God is asking of us. At times, going through governance changes, it has seemed as if we were on hold, like nothing was happening. Now, with many of the transitions behind us, we sense the reset is over and we’re more focused and better able to serve our churches!

I’m thankful that in the middle of a shifting world I can rest in a God who never changes. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

May you too experience God’s care as he works in you this year. If God hits your reset button, it may be harder than you can imagine (it is for me), but there’s hope in the silence. God is doing his job!

Paul Loewen is a member–participant at Mountain Park Community Church, Abbotsford, B.C., and serves on the executive board of the Canadian MB Conference. He is currently managing his vocational changes.