Garry spoke this morning on ‘settlers and seekers’, basing his sermon on 2 Corinthians 3:18 which talks of the daily transformation God is wanting to work in each one of us. The transformational rate of change may vary (with change being more visible early on in our Christian journey, just as the baby makes enormous changes in its first year), but God wants us to be continually becoming more like Christ throughout the whole of our lives.
The American settlers travelled far and wide in the United States, travelling across different kinds of terrains through different kinds of weather, pursuing a dream with a spirit of adventure.
They remind us of Abraham, who kept on moving, journeying with God and living like a stranger in a foreign country (see Heb 11:8-10). For so many of us, ‘home’ becomes somewhere established and settled and then we do not wish to move on, but for those who are seekers, there will always be that sense of not quite fitting in and being filled with a restlessness because we know there is so much more in God for us to discover. We may not know what that is (it’s a ‘known unknown’!), but we know God is driving us forward.
Settlers will find they may become bored, having low expectations and no sense of excitement. They have got used to the status quo and are content with it. Seekers, however, will remember what God has done but will not settle for this as the ‘ultimate’, aware that there is so much more in God to discover and experience. Is 43:16-19 reminds us that God wants to do new things. If Peter had simply lived on his experience of the Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-6), he would never have experienced God’s amazing power on the Pentecost, preached to thousands, been one of the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles or travelled beyond his wildest dreams. He did not allow his experiences of God to limit him, but these became the fuel for a further pressing on and straining forward, described by Paul in Phil 3:12-14.
The challenge facing us all is to switch from being settlers to becoming seekers, people who will press on in God, always aware that He is working to change us with ever-increasing glory into the image of Christ.