“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
Today we are going to talk about the winds of change. Change is hard for many, if not most people. It can be really difficult. I know that is true for myself. In fact, too often, I have resisted resist change in my life. However, then sensibility moves in and I am reminded that there are many ways to do things and get the same end result for the benefit of all. It is important to be flexible and open to change, but we are only human. No one is perfect but Jesus himself. In reality, as we live and learn, change can become a welcome thing in our lives. Something we even come to look forward to. An opportunity of sorts, to practice patience, endurance, and put aside all fear of the future.
It is easy to get comfortable and settle in to doing things a certain way. Perhaps even ‘stuck’ in a rut, and a role. But we all need to try to be flexible in new situations. That is what some experts call ‘neuroplasticity.’ We need to adapt to new things, people and situations to survive and live a happy, joyous life. Without flexibility, we may become chronically discontent – even angry-- over the way things should and could be. Unfortunately, I must admit that sometimes when I am faced with change, I resist it completely. I may dig my heels in, and with almost a knee-jerk reaction, decide that I will not move forward with the change or participate in it. I may even stubbornly cling to the past way of doing things for a while, even if the new way is much better. In essence, I am sometimes hesitant to even give change a chance. We all face change, but how we deal with it makes all the difference!
Once I had a job that I loved. I really liked my boss and things just seemed to run smoothly while working under her. She had been there for many years, and we all knew what to expect from her, the job at hand, and our workplace. In a word—it was comfortable. In fact, looking back now with hindsight, it may have been a little too comfortable, making it easy to do the job in a rote way. After all, that is how we had always done things. It just worked, so why change a good thing?
Then one day the unexpected happened. The boss I had enjoyed and worked with for many years retired, and someone else took over her spot as the new manager. He was a good man, and a strong leader with tons of new ideas he was eager to implement. He was a sort of visionary with ideas that would change my workplace and the community forever, in a significant way. It was a little scary and uncomfortable at first working under him, as his ways were so very different than our previous manager. For some months, with him at the helm, it made me—and my co-workers—very uncomfortable on so many levels.
Many of the employees there were unhappy with him right from the start, as he pushed us into a new level of individual and team excellence. It wasn’t really about him. It was about change. In fact, he insisted we work as a team, and some people were extremely resistant to that idea—sadly, most of his ideas. It took a while, but eventually we all came to see he had a big and life-giving vision that transformed us as people and as employees; and it was a great one! Surprisingly, with the passage of time, he was actually able to bring what we thought was a seemingly grandiose plan and vision to fruition. He even engaged the community in his vast plan for change—and it was a huge success that benefited thousands of people in our local community!
Though highly ambitious, he made it all happen as planned, and our team worked with him by his side to make it happen. But we had to put aside our resistance to change and our fear of change. Over time, we all came to see that the changes he implemented made everything run more efficiently, smoothly, and the results of his leadership were amazing—a breath of fresh air! Our team came to love the new manager, his vision, and the changes he brought with him to lead us to greatness as I said, as a team. And we grew individually and as a team in our ability to be flexible and accept change.
So take a minute and ask yourself this question: what do you do when faced with change? Do you resist the new changes that you are asked to make, struggle with the way things should be, or walk in fear of what will be? Do you cling to and run back to what is comfortable for you? Do you lament the way things were? Or do you embrace change as a new way of doing things in a positive way, or do you gracefully accept change for what it is: A new opportunity to grow in flexibility?
Clearly, the winds of change can bring unsettling feelings with them that we all need to deal with. Anxiety, fear, anger about having to change at all from the way we used to do things. But the truth is, change happens. It’s just a part of life, so we must adapt or at times risk, being left behind due to our choice not to accept it. Change also happens for us as Christians. You see, as we begin to grow in faith and believe in Jesus we embrace our faith in a new way. All because of choosing to seek and follow Jesus, everything changes!
No we will never have a perfect life, but we are forever changed from the inside out as individuals when we take a leap of faith, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, invite Jesus to enter our lives. By willingly doing so, we become “a new creation.” This occurs as a result of the changes we experience in and through Jesus when we whole-heartedly place our trust in Him voluntarily. If we choose to resist these spiritual changes, we may never fully know the power that Jesus, the Living God, can have in our lives. But as long as we live and breathe, Jesus’ door is always open to us for spiritual, and hence emotional, change.
Yes-change can be difficult. When the winds of change are upon us, it is our choice if we accept and embrace it, or not. The best part is that if we choose to accept change, it has the power to open up our world, and thereby help us grow closer to Jesus as we place our trust in Him.
© Copyright | Adele M. Gill
