How to Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes in Your Life

In a season of rapid, relentless, and unwanted change, many people feel like they are "reeling" or "treading water," unable to move forward. Pastor Rick Warren opens this message by acknowledging that while we all love some changes, the current pace of upheaval has left people overwhelmed and barely getting by. The central question he addresses is straightforward: How do you keep trusting God when you're going through changes you don't like?

Change Is Unavoidable

The first thing to remember is obvious but worth stating: change is unavoidable. Warren points to Genesis 8:22, where God says that as long as the earth remains, there will be seasons—spring and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer. Nothing stays the same. Your family, your job, even you yourself are not what you used to be. Even inanimate objects like a table are constantly moving at the molecular level.

Warren illustrates this with a personal example: he drove the same green Ford truck for 20 years because he liked it and would have kept driving it forever, but after a quarter-million miles it started breaking down and falling apart. He still has it parked in his barn, but he can't drive it anymore. The point is that resisting change is futile. You can complain, grumble, get mad, or try to stop it, but things will keep changing anyway.