You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. Alan Watts
Matthew, the apostle and author of a Gospel, tells us about the beginning of Jesus’s ministry:
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
That word “repent” carries emotional baggage to many of us. The word simply means change. We were living one way, then we change and live another. When Jesus said it, the strong implication was that we would change for the better. And better being defined as living according to his teachings (following this proclamation, Matthews tells us Jesus assembled some disciples and began teaching crowds of people; the subject matter of the teaching he records as the “Sermon on the Mount”).
Not only are we under no obligation to be the same person we were five minutes ago, we are encouraged to evaluate where we are and change direction for the better.
I have read a contemporary philosopher whose concern rises from a observation that all the gurus and influencers promoting continuous improvement programs lead to a culture of narcissism. Too much “all about me.”
Following Jesus’s way actually means change isn’t about ending with us. It’s what comes next. We must change our ways (and some of more often than once!) so that we can better serve others.
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Faith Venture 
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