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Viewpoint from Matt Ashpole 02/10/2020

Matt Ashpole
Youth Work Leader at Identity Youth Project

Change is inevitable isn’t it? Throughout your life you will experience change in many forms. You’ll change age, shoe size (hopefully shoes too), friends, workplaces, relationship status, house – the list goes on. We all experience change in some way, shape or form but often we become adverse to it because we like things the way they are. We get comfortable, perhaps even complacent
 
Just before lockdown I turned twenty-five and became a first time father, something which I am thoroughly enjoying. Once my paternity leave ended it was as if I was entering a completely different world - change was faster and more drastic than I’d ever experienced before. Days without Zoom meetings, queues to enter shops and face masks seem a distant memory
 
Due to this agent of change called Covid-19 we were presented with an incredible opportunity amidst the chaos, to innovate the way we do youth work and now we operate very differently. Personally, I think it would be a shame if we were to fully revert back to the way we previously worked. We’re committed to moving forwards (not backwards) and developing, innovating, and progressing youth work in the coming weeks, months and years
 
Not all change that we experience is forced upon us, like that which we’ve been exposed to during this pandemic. Some change is implied or advised – just think of a sports coach adjusting the technique of an athlete. We may instigate some changes ourselves – perhaps a new diet or fitness programme to keep fit.  So not all change is bad, change in fact can be completely necessary to move something to the next level or improve something for the better as I’m sure you’d agree. What is devastating however is when something improves and over time reverts back to its former self – the old habits, old systems, perhaps even old sins
 
Finally, we believe that the most crucial agent of change is The Holy Spirit - a gift freely given to those who follow Jesus. This agent of change however isn’t harsh, drastic, evil, or forced upon us like that of Covid, but rather soft, comforting, and inviting – the ideal present help in times of trouble and uncertainty. This agent of change guides those whose hearts He inhabits and leads them in truth and closer to God’s plans and purposes for their life. A truth-filled eternally significant agent of change
Amen

 

photo courtesy of Brian Philpott

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