Sunday, January 6,
2008
Change &
Newness I: Who Moved My Cheese? God Did!
Dr. Will Jones
First Presbyterian Church,
Isaiah 43:15-19; 2 Corinthians 5:17
Ten years ago, in 1998, a
book came out that was instantly a best-seller, and it has remained a
best-seller for the last decade. That seems hard to believe, now that I think
about it and say it out loud, that 1998 was ten years ago. You say to yourself,
“1998”, and you think, “that wasn’t too long ago, three or four years it seems
like”….but no – ten years have come and gone since then. It was that long ago
in 1998, when this book came out that has remained a best seller ever since:
Who Moved My Cheese. Did anyone here read that book? Raise your hand if you
read that book…
If you did read it, you
remember that it is a book about change. It’s about how much life changes and
how we react to those changes. The main characters in the book are two mice and
two little people. As the story goes…all four of them live and work in a maze.
Every day consists of following a routine that gets them to the cheese station
to get their cheese. Cheese is symbolic: it is whatever makes you happy. Cheese
is where you find meaning. It could be work; it could be family; it could be
relationships; it could be the school. The maze is whatever your life’s routine
and system is – and cheese is what that routine produces: your reward and
happiness. The problem is, in the book as in life: the cheese gets moved. It is
no longer found in the same place in the maze we move through every day. It got
moved…by whom? We don’t know; but it’s gone. Change.
For a full copy of this
sermon, click
here.