Change is hard!

Many, perhaps most of us, thrive on the familiar. Perhaps it’s a routine: the morning cup of coffee; the weekly phone call from a relative. Perhaps it’s a place: that one restaurant in your favorite vacation city; the family gathering spot for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Perhaps it’s a ritual: the bedtime story to your son; the Lord’s Prayer each Sunday. Perhaps it’s a person: an old friend; a trusted confidant; the kind of person you develop a communicative shorthand with; the kind of person with whom you can laugh and cry with equal abandon.

Change is inevitable.

Coffee makes your ulcer flare up. That restaurant is now an Olive Garden. Your son would rather read his own books. Your friend moves to another city. We resist change, we fight it, we curse it. It makes us sad, it makes us angry. Nothing will ever be the same, and we hate it.

Change sucks!

CGS is in the middle of change, as we have bid goodbye to Pastor Manda and begin the process of bringing a new Pastor into our community. In fact, we have been in a state of change for sixteen months as we discovered a new way of worshipping together, and are now taking the tentative steps back to “normalcy.” My other job is in a similar state of change, as faces and roles change within our very small staff in addition to negotiating the same (hopefully) post-pandemic paths. A big portion of my life each day is about change, and to be honest, it feels very uncertain, very unstable. I like resolution. I do not like waking up with more unanswered questions than I went to bed with.

There is a scripture on the wall of Joshua’s room:

      This is my command – be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

The reminder that things will always change – that millions of things change each and every day – but that God’s love for us remains constant, that God’s love is our rock, our anchor – this helps me turn from the sadness and the fear I have wrapped up in my change; and it helps me embrace the potential that change can provide. It also helps remind me that change is not permanent. Things may change in a way we don’t like – but they will change again – and most importantly, we can be an agent in that change.

Things may look very different for me in a month, or six months, or a year. But God will be there, as God always has been.

Change is good.

~ Daniel Thomas