Change can be hard, exciting, challenging, welcome or dreaded. As a high school graduate, I gifted my best friend with a decoupaged wallhanging I’d made from a magazine ad. It showed a picture of a young child, forehead against the window of a school bus with a tear sliding down his cheek. The caption read, “The future always arrives a little before you’re ready to give up the present.”
In the past, I never liked change. It was uncomfortable. Why couldn’t things stay the same? My wise, older brother once told me, “Change is good.” It was unwelcome advice at the time since I was resisting an undesirable change. But his words echoed in my head as the years passed, and I’ve come to see the wisdom in them. Is it my age? Have I simply lived long enough to accept that change is inevitable? Or have I come to appreciate the growth that occurs because things change–growth that otherwise wouldn’t happen?
Whatever the reason, I’ve learned to embrace change. Which is why after almost 33 years in one place, I’m looking forward to moving to a new house, a new town, new experiences. It’s hard to leave the familiar behind, hard to say goodbye to friends and neighbors, the people who’ve shared my life for the past 2-3 decades. I appreciate the convenience of social media now that makes it easier to stay connected from a distance.
There is much to look forward to in this change:
-finding a new house that’s just right for us
-making new friends
-discovering a new church
-enjoying a nearby lake
-a 20-minute “rush hour”
-exploring new ways to be used by God
I know the coming days and weeks will be uncomfortable. There will be lonely days when I long for a friend who knows me and knows where I’ve been, someone I don’t have to explain myself to. But change is good. It forces me to grow. I’ll share my journey with you in the coming weeks. In the meantime, how do you feel about change? Love it? Hate it? Accept it? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.
