For many, the idea of change in the church is like being asked to change diapers. It is…unpleasant. They are messy, stinky, and unpredictable. Sometimes the odor is unbearable. And sometimes the entire exercise gets you covered in it. Not to mention the times in which the baby pees directly on you!

Even those that have never changed a diaper know the problems and rightfully fear it. It is not only messy, but the diapers themselves are a challenge to operate for the first time. Do you have to put cream on the baby’s bum, too? Did I do it the same way you did? For many of us, the first time changing a diaper was a time of true fear.

That and it took, like 10 minutes.

Changing diapers is inevitable, however. No matter what you want to do about it. As a parent or a babysitter, you’ll not only have to change a diaper, you are going to have to change a lot of diapers. Many times a day, every day. Over and over again. For just one kid. Have a second kid? Way more diapers.

In this way, change is inevitable, constant, and regular. It is unavoidable. If you are the one that gets out of changing diapers, you are putting the entirety of the responsibility on the shoulders of someone else, which is unsustainable. Dads might have gotten away with making the mother change all the diapers in the past, but that won’t fly today. And the fewer you, as a Dad change, the more likely your life becomes miserable elsewhere because moms keep score. It’s a fact.

Nobody likes changing diapers, right? Wrong. My parents love changing diapers. They don’t simply argue over who gets to change my son’s diaper, they swoop in and steal the baby just to change his diaper (and get some good snuggles afterward). They are obsessed with changing his diapers! Why?

One simple reason for their eagerness: my son loves it. I think he would love it anyway, but it helps that we love that he loves it. He loves getting naked and getting the attention and the tickles and the cooing. He loves when we sing to him and look him right in the eyes and tell him all about what he’s going to wear or what we’re going to tell Mommy when she gets home. He smiles so big, and he laughs so easily when you go at that cute, bare belly. How could you not want to experience that?

We are socialized to not want to change diapers because of what it does to us (what we see and what we smell) rather than what it does for the baby. If we focus on the baby, and silence the conventional wisdom that narrates in our heads, we can find changing diapers to be an incredibly joyous opportunity. An opportunity we are given by God to make us better people

So change is not only inevitable, but it is a regular occurrence that gives us the opportunity of service and intimacy with another person; a person that is dependent on our care and love and support. How might you make change in your community such an opportunity from God?