And the Winner Is...

There's a passage of Scripture in Philippians 2 that highlights the nature of our spiritual journey - God wants us to move forward in Him, not to stand still or regress, but to continue to allow Him to do His transformational work in our hearts:
12Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;13for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.14Do all things without complaining and disputing,15that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

So are you working out today?  I remember hearing a pastor a few years back compare the working out of our salvation to working out in physical exercise.  We are called to not work "for" our salvation, because if we know Christ, then that matter is settled - as believers in Jesus and servants of the Most High God, we recognize that He is doing His work in our hearts according to His plan. Sometimes that work will be performed internally as we encounter external changes around us. Change provides opportunity for the Lord to do a greater work in our lives, recognizing that he will often orchestrate change in order to accomplish His greater purpose.

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In Deuteronomy 31, we find that Israel is in a state of transition.  Its leader, Moses, is stepping aside, making way for Joshua to take control.  And, there is plenty of work to be done.  Here are Moses' words of encouragement.  Beginning with verse 5, where Moses refers to the nations they would encounter, he says:
5The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you.6Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."7Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.

Election Day is now in the rear-view mirror, by and large, and the winner is...

Alex from Target!

Really?

Here's the backstory and timeline, as best as I can piece it together from media reports.

According to UPI.com, a Texas teenager snapped a picture of a checkout employee at a Target store. She tweeted a friend.  Then, the photo ended up on Tumblr, and someone else actually reposted it - that's when it began to go viral.

Target says it's not responsible, although it did tweet out a picture of an employee badge with the name "Alex" on it, with the message, "We heart Alex, too!" and the hashtag, #alexfromtarget.

Yesterday, a marketing company called Breakr apparently tried to take credit for the spread of the photo. It revised the story, saying that the person who had obtained the photo from Tumblr had no relationship with its organization. And, there have numerous reports that dispute Breakr's claims that it started the hashtag. Alex, who is apparently a Texas high school student named Alex LaBeouf, says he's not involved.

Alex, who is up to over 78,000 followers on Twitter, sent out the message, "Am I famous now?"

USA Today reported that as of 11 a.m. Monday, #Alexfromtarget had been tweeted over 821,000 times in the previous 24 hours, according to Topsy, an online Twitter analytics website.

This incident just goes to show the power of the Internet, and it also reminds us that we will face circumstances beyond our control, transformational moments that could even change the course of our lives.  Alex may be forgotten by the fast-moving world of social media tomorrow, but this is certainly a series of events he won't forget.

And, across the country, people woke up this morning in one line of work and immediately transferred into another.  Take, David Perdue in Georgia, for instance - he was in the corporate world, once the CEO of Dollar General, ran for Senate, and today, he's a U.S. Senator-elect.  Same with people like Thom Tillis in North Carolina, who will be leaving the confines of that state's House of Representatives to go to Washington.

There are certain aspects about change that can be scary and challenging, but change provides opportunity.   Change and how we respond to it in our lives can help to mold us into the image of Christ.  

Sometimes changes will be intentional, the result of our own effort, but at other times, we will see things change around us to which we do not contribute.  We may want to resist change, and that's a good thing, if it will be detrimental to our personal lives and our spiritual growth.  We have to recognize when we are not changing for the better and take the necessary steps to make sure we are not moving in a direction apart from God.  And, if things seem to be spiraling out of control in our lives and pulling us away from Him, we have to make sure that we are anchored in our Rock, our Lord Jesus.

But, we can also embrace change, realizing that it just may be a chance for God to work in our lives. Spiritual growth, I believe, involves change - starting with our transfer from darkness to light, death to life, and then continuing as we make decisions to follow Christ along the path that He is leading.  We can choose to surrender to Him daily and recognize that He is doing a glorious, inward work in our hearts, drawing us closer to Himself and expressing His nature through us, even amidst the changes we encounter.