I have lived long enough to know without a doubt, for certain and for sure, that life changes. If life is too challenging at the moment, or could be that your life today is too boring, just wait a bit. That’s okay sometimes, especially when you are in the midst of a difficult time. But when life is good, it has the audacity to change anyway!
My mind has been on this subject of change for a while now. I suppose many factors have influenced it. There is the changing of the body as it ages. Most recently I have been in contact with my high school buddies, due to the influence of Facebook, and the realization of a 30-year reunion fast approaching. These guys have really changed! Is it that obvious on me too? We are in a season of quick changes, one we watch with some anticipation as the leaves of trees turn, die and fall to the ground. The changing of the hot temperatures to the cooler and the tilting of the earth that causes that change. Creation changes are unending! We just changed the time on our clocks and we are in the beginnings of change in the church’s liturgical calendar. Some of us may be experiencing changes in family situations, jobs, the economy, and the list continues. And at this very moment (of the time of writing), the news of the horrific killings at Ft.Hood, painfully remind us of how quickly life does and will continue to change.
Often times we will hear someone say, “Why can’t things just be different, “or “Why do things always have to change.” Changes can be so unsettling, sometimes causing fear or uncertainties. And in other times we welcome change with jubilation! Life cannot happen without change. It is inevitable.
So the question is not “why changes”, but how to; how to accept, how to handle, how to “weather gracefully”, how NOT to fear them, but instead embrace them.
“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” by King Whitney Jr.
Where do you fit? Are you fearful, hopeful, confident? When you choose to tackle life on your own, that is without having developed and matured your faith in God, then changes will always be unsettling. But when God is the foundation in your life, nothing need be feared. You can approach life with confidence because God has assured you of this. (ref. Romans 8:14-17)
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27
May you have a full life of changes to embrace!
God loves you immensely!
Tracie
Once again, God has blessed us with another beautiful girl! Addison MaeLee Brown, 9 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 inches long made her debut a bit after noon today, the 26th of May 2009.
During this season of lent we are given the opportunity to experience something other than in our normal everyday lives; to experience something other than ourselves. We are invited to give up a part of ourselves that we would otherwise be dependent upon, or to cling. We are invited to experience the other possibilities in our self. In that process (those 40 days) we begin to suffer over the loss of the familiar. So often times it is much easier to continue clinging to old ways, to continue dependence on the familiar, to snuggle in the blanket of false security.
