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Changing

Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for baseball season, and now the playoffs are on and it's time for football, Halloween, Thanksgiving and all the holiday season. The year has passed so quickly; it's hard to believe that in a few short months, it will be 2010. The seasons are changing, as evidenced by the colors of the leaves and the chilly nip in the air. Time to put away the summer things and pull out fall and winter clothes and jackets.

Sometimes the passage of time brings things that give us great joy: a new addition to the family, fun experiences, happy gatherings, and so on. Inevitably, though, life has its times of sorrow as well; a loved one passes away, a job is lost, things that were once precious are lost or broken. Change is part of life, and the longer we live, the more we realize that we cannot avoid all the changes that we don't like. We have to take the bad with the good and learn how to move on in spite of the change.

How do we handle change? For some, change is frightening. Just when you think you have your ducks in a row and everything is going the way you want, boom! something happens and the world is turned upside down. If you have ever gone through a small or a large disaster like an earthquake or flood, you begin to understand that change can happen in a moment. Everything that seemed so solid and secure can be changed in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Change is not always a bad thing, however. There are changes that enrich our lives, too. When a child is born, life changes for everyone in the family. The parents now have a new responsibility, and their lives are turned upside down. You don't just pick up and go whenever you want when you have a baby, as the new parents quickly discover. Feedings in the middle of the night; car seats and strollers and toys that have to be purchased and accommodated; day care, babysitting, school and homework all now become part of life. During labor, the mother might wonder what on earth she has gotten herself into, but one look at that little person and the pain all seems worth it. As she holds that miracle in her arms for the first time, she discovers a depth of love that she didn't know was there.

We have to find ways to move on and embrace the change that comes our way to discover the joy that it can bring. Even the changes that seem bad—loss of a loved one, job change,  etc.—can hold within them the seeds of something good if we look hard. Life may be different afterwards, but that does not mean that life stops for us because of a change we did not want. When you put your trust in God, you find that He can take the painful things of life and bring meaning and beauty out of them. Paul puts it this way in Romans:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.  Romans 8:28-30

Paul goes on to elaborate the confidence and peace that we can have in spite of the changes that come:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39

That is the kind of confidence that I am working towards as I face change in my own life. Knowing that God is on my side makes the changes of life seem less threatening, even the ones that I do not particularly look forward to. 

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