Change is very difficult for me.  I take great comfort in the known, in the familiar people, tasks, expectations, and routine.  Anxiety appears when I don’t know what to expect, and I worry over all possible outcomes.  I came across a passage of scripture in Daniel chapter 1 that gave me comfort about trying new things.

^8-10 But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the palace staff, by God’s grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, “I’m afraid of what my master the king will do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he’ll have my head!”

^11-13 But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: “Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see.”

^14-16 The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables.

There was a way of doing things that had worked for many years, and Daniel came onto the scene challenging the status quo.  But rather than turning things upside down, he asked permission to try something new and test it out. 

Things are always changing, and God calls men and women to be agents of change for his glory, to challenge the status quo and test the waters.  Is God calling you to move out of your place of comfort and test yourself and Him by trying something new?  What excuses are you using to cling to the familiar and comfortable?  Can you find reassurance in the knowledge that God calls you step out on faith into the company of great men like Daniel?