Change is something that no one likes. It can cause hard feelings if the change is imposed from without, no matter if it is a needed change or not. Some changes happen because of life, like aging, health issues, accepting different roles in the family, or just be life itself. One of the hardest, but most important, realities about change is that it is part of life.
When I think of all the emotions and thinking patterns about change, I get overwhelmed. Anger, fear, anxiety, depression, isolation, etc. Some many will interpret a change as a result of something he or she did. Others see change as something that is an insult to them. The pattern of thinking I mean is that “my world is the way I like it; how dare someone muck it up!” Often, change happens suddenly and out of the blue. Many people will think like the friends of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures: what did you do to deserve it? Just yell at God and walk away?. Even Job had to come to terms with the fact that he was not God and sometimes things happen and there is no way to grasp the change that follows.
Even when change is good, we can be afraid of it. If I lose the weight I want to, can I cope? If I take the new job, will I like it? Any time we face a change that will be good, we often get blinded by the path we will walk. For example, if I wanted a PhD which in my book is not a bad thing, I could be self-defeating. “I am too old,” “I do not write well enough,” “I am not smart enough,” and the list of self-defeating thoughts continue. In reality, I think most of us are just afraid of doing something new and risky. But, it is in this change, we can find life and joy.
Many might be wondering why I am writing about change. It just seems over the past month or so, change is happening in many ways all around me. A friend passed away, I turned 65, people I know are retiring, friends are thinking about moving away, the realization that I am the older generation of my family, getting used to a new bishop which is not a bad thing, and the list goes on. I have felt like I was in a storm that was becoming a hurricane. But, I have to remember that there is calm in the middle of the hurricane and maybe that is where God is. Dead set in the middle of it all.
I know there are more changes coming down the road, but I also know I cannot stop most or any of them. I can hold on the God and He will get me through.
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