Darwin Got This One Right

Before you cast judgment or label me a heretic, read the next few lines.

Darwin once said this, “Survival goes not necessarily to the most intelligent or the strongest, but to the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Even though he missed the big picture and built his life’s work on the wrong principles, he did get this statement right. Change is necessary in order to survive. In a previous post I talked about RUTS and how dangerous they can be. You see, God likes variety…just look around you. How many times has God spoken to you the exact same way two times in a row?

Take a look at Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 17. God led him to a brook and sent birds with food to help Elijah survive a famine. But Elijah couldn’t stay there forever. God was not going to let him get lazy. Verse 7 says, “But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.” (NLT)

“The brook dried up,” I’ve been there. It feels like every channel that connects us to God is clogged. You are searching for an answer from God, asking God to give you direction, crying out to God in despair or searching for a creative solution and it feels like no one is there…the brook dried up.

The reality is this, God is there and He will give you direction, guidance, encouragement and whatever you need, but it may not come to us the same way it did the time before. We must be willing and ready to adapt and re-adjust.

We are creatures of habit. Once we find something that works, we tend to stay with it way too long. Combine that with the fact that we are all very busy and the stage is set for some massive ruts, doing the same thing over and over but all the while, you are looking for and needing new solutions. But “the brook dried up.” The ideas don’t come as fast and the solutions take three times longer to discover.

Here is a simple idea that works for me:

Try new things.

• A new hobby
• Read a different type of book or magazine
• Meet some new people
• Put yourself in environments that are outside the norm for you

This list could go on and on. The point is this, doing new things breaks the routine, interrupts the ingrained patterns and puts you in a position to find a new “brook.” Maybe the “brook” you’ve counted on in the past is dried up, but God has another one for you and He will direct you to it.

Just remember, you don’t have to be the strongest or most intelligent to survive, but you do need to be adaptable.