Change is Hard

Change is hard. Big change. Little change. Heart change. Job change. Physical change. Family change. Transitions from something old to something new. Change that is expected or unexpected. It may be fully realized at the very beginning or months after when the crying starts. Sometimes it takes a while for our heart and mind to catch up with our soul. The realizations come tumbling in one after the other as our life finally meets our middle. Yes, THIS is when the tears flow. Suddenly we are months behind on feelings we didn’t even know we had. How did I get here and where am I going now? Life happens so fast and so very slow all at the same time.

We are running, moving, treading when suddenly one simple event may pull us up short and knock the wind out of us.  It can be as simple as a word from another or a slight misstep that leaves you on the side of the road using the thumbs up for help.  It’s times like these when the thoughts come in like a torrent. All the change and movement overwhelms as it passes over our minds like breath in our lungs. We see our lives like the blur of a movie reel, colliding with the present moment. Time stops. The screen of our thoughts blinking as it all soaks into our soul.

Change is hard.

Certain changes can be easy because they bring relief and distraction.  This can be relief from the mundane, relief from thoughts of the current struggle in a relationship or situation, or even from yourself as you keep your mind busy from what bothers you most in your heart of hearts. Being the same might be unbearable for you. If it is, this in itself necessitates change. Change of the hardest nature. The change of no change. Of being still.

There is always a kind of change that is hard.

What is the change that is hard for you?

Going back to work?

Quitting your job?

New baby?

Grandbaby born far away?

Medical news?

Exercise change?

Friendship change?

Marriage change?

Home change?

Responsibility change?

Change is hard.

What if the change is that things need to stay the same…for a while. You are in a time of endurance for the long haul. The thing you started still needs to be completed. It’s one of the longest periods of no change for you yet. It is long and the wait must continue.

What if the change is for you to stop doing what you have been for a very long time. The time is over and the seasons have changed. Do you feel lost? Unsure of the next step? The thing that has defined you no longer is? This change reaches deep, not just into the doings of your life but deep into who you are and how you define yourself. This change goes to the depths of your very personhood and soul.

How do you react to your change? Do you pray and seek or jump in quickly? Do you wait too long to do the thing deep down you know you are supposed to do? Do you not wait long enough and have regret?

Do you wait too long to change to forgiveness? To change to love rather than judgement? To know when to bow out of an unhealthy relationship? To stop influence that is negative in your life? To initiate relationship with those who will challenge you and encourage you? Do you wait too long to say sorry? Do you wait too long before you come and linger at the feet of Jesus? Do you wait too long to ask him for help instead of going straight to him in the first place? Why do you wait so long? Is it time to change? To change from waiting to doing?

Change is hard.

Many times in order to make HEART changes, we first, must make LIFE changes. In order to make LIFE change, we must, first, make MIND changes.

“As a man thinks, so is he.”

Where is YOUR  mind?

Does it need to change?

Are you riddled with anxiety? With hopelessness in certain areas? Have you given up? Perhaps You feel stuck. Like you will never change. That the struggle you’ve had, you always will. The thing you hope has not yet come to pass? The thing you most desire, will never come to be? Your mind is a storm and your heart is the boat, tossed to and fro in the wake of thoughts and worry. Will these worries change? Will this storm pass? Will the pain fade? Oh, for a change.

Yet.

In the midst of our changing or needing to change, it is ever so good that we serve a God who DOES NOT change. Nothing is sure. Nothing is fixed. Nothing is stable or guaranteed. Things change. Life changes. People change. There is a time for every change.

There is always change.  

In everything.but.one.

Him.

And isn’t it good? This you can count on, even in the midst of all the change, good and bad. With the riding of the waves during the storms and shifting waters, He will never change nor his intentions towards us.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17

He never changes and he loves us with his everlasting love. There is no shifting or turning by him. He draws us with unfailing kindness. So even in the midst of our change, he is the same. Forever.

 

This is what draws me to him. Sometimes, I don’t know who I am or where I am or what I am…but He does. And he draws me with his kindness and love. And he will continue to because HE NEVER CHANGES.

Change is hard but He is good.

Change is hard but He will never fail.

Change is hard but He is still the same.

Change is hard but He will build you up again.

Change is hard because He is changing you.

Change is hard but He is making you new.

Change is hard but He is with you.

Change is hard but change is good.

Change is hard but He makes ALL things new.

He can. He will.

 

 

Let the change come.