Uprooted

App updates are all good and necessary, but sometimes they can be utterly frustrating or, at the very least, irritating when you find that the interface has changed and there are now new options. You can’t just go on force of habit, but have to make new setting choices and learn new ways to get something done.

Sometimes it feels as if we’re just being asked to change too much. Sometimes we’d like to actually grow roots. Yes, change is needed and with a positive attitude can be adventurous and fun, but it’s also unsettling and often painful, because we are continually being asked to reevaluate not only our surroundings but also ourselves.

Right now we’re writing this column in between moving boxes. We have just moved again. And although change can be very positive and often has many beneficial aspects, it’s also painful because it means uprooting and transplanting. It means deciding again what to take, what to give away or sell, ending close relationships and having to begin anew.

Preparing for Change

It’s impressive to see the ramp that the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib built (actually Israelite captives did the building) to get into the well-fortified city of Lachish. A few years ago we were privileged to take part in an excavation at the site. Working at the Iron Age II destruction layer of the city brought a whole new level of reality and relatability to Hezekiah’s story. This was an extremely turbulent time for Hezekiah with Lachish, the second most important city of Judah, taken by the Assyrians.

After the siege and conquest of Lachish, Sennacherib sent a letter to King Hezekiah telling him that Jerusalem was up next. It’s not that Hezekiah hadn’t done his best to prepare for this change—he had! He had undertaken impressive preparations. He had fortified Jerusalem. He had built an engineering wonder to guarantee a steady water supply inside the city in case of a siege. The 533-meter-long (1,750-foot-long) long tunnel that bears his name in Jerusalem was designed to bring the water from a spring outside the city gates into the city. He had done everything he could, and yet he had to witness upheaval all around him, and everything that he had spent his life on now being threatened.

A lot of Judah’s territory had already been taken. It was a time of extreme anxiety. Hezekiah tried to prepare for change as best as he could, but following the arrival of the Assyrian army, he now does probably the most important thing he could have done. He goes into the temple and opens the letter before God. We read about this in Isaiah 37. Hezekiah doesn’t try to wing this storm on his own. He doesn’t try to stifle the tremendous feelings and anxieties that come with this threatening prospect. He goes and pours it all out to God. God does see, even when we cannot see around the bend in the road or understand what is too difficult to understand.

There will be an adjustment time. There will be a time of going back and perhaps a time of living off what we’ve had in the past.

Hezekiah was probably wondering why God hadn’t intervened in Lachish, as we often wonder why something didn’t go easier or why we couldn’t have avoided the more painful things altogether. While we may not always understand what perplexes us, we can know that God hears. God sends word through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 37 is full of wonderful promises that bring comfort and assurance. God promises that Jerusalem will not fall, and through a mighty miracle we cannot fully understand, He delivers the king and his city. The miraculous delivery of Jerusalem is impressive, but what really jumps out are verses 30 and 31. God says: “You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and the second year what springs from the same; also in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” In other words, get back into some sort of normalcy.

The Timing of Change

It’s interesting that even after the miracle, even after the reassurance that God would come through for Hezekiah, God still took the time to tell him that change would not happen overnight. We’re not expected to go back to or go on as normal when our lives are in upheaval. There will be an adjustment time. There will be a time of going back and perhaps a time of living off what we’ve had in the past. A time to reflect and remember; but then there’s this wonderful promise. It will take time. It will take reflection. It will take moments of reconnection, but these are the moments during which growth will begin to happen.

Perhaps not as visible as in the past, but growth will take place, and we will “take root below and bear fruit above” (Isa. 37:31, NIV). It’s wonderful to know that in all the changes, whether deliberately sought or threatening our very existence, we will not be swept away. We can take our time; we can actively remember God’s working in our past and then wait. We will take root again, and God will help us to flourish. Whatever is going on in our own personal worlds or in our great big world, we don’t have to be afraid of change.