Drift, Stagnation, or Change

Ian Miller | 06/27/2025

Drift and change are not the same thing. 

Drift is something that happens passively. You don’t realize it is happening. An outside force moves you in a direction you didn’t want to go. 

Change, on the other hand, is an intentional choice. This happens all the time. You change lanes to make a turn. You change your clothes because your soccer garb doesn’t fit the setting for the communion service. 

What’s more nuanced is change that happens over time. Change that is made up of a thousand choices. It might be drift, in that those thousand choices were subconsciously made, not deliberately chosen. Or, it might be transformation in that those changes were the result of intentional growth and pursuit of a healthier self. After all, as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, as followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and is changing us, one step at a time. We don’t even always realize the specific change that is happening, but it is change in a positive sense, not drift in the negative sense. 

Are you drifting? Are you passively floating along in the sea of life, without any sense of objective direction or guidance? Do your emotions control you? Are other people’s opinions your North Star? Does charting a course, establishing a path forward, seems unspiritual and scary to you?

Or maybe you’re stagnating. Do you see change in yourself and others as inherently bad? Have you erected walls as your guardrails? Have you entrenched yourself in the current system to ensure you can’t “get off course”? Does paralyzing fear of the unknown control your every decision?

Or are you intentionally pursuing change? Do you surround yourself with a multitude of counselors (not an echo-chamber)? Do you actively and regularly ask the Holy Spirit to change you (and then you listen to His voice and follow)? Do you humbly invite different opinions and listen with an open mind? Do you have a growth mindset—heart that is committed to change as a way of life? 

I invite you to courageously live the life of change. Don’t let fear of change paralyze you. Don’t let passivity rob you of the life God created you for.