“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 New Living translation —-Including CHANGE.
Earlier this week I found myself in rapid motion in a small space. Being barefoot you can guess it did not end well. For the first time I experienced the pain of a broken bone. Even though it’s a very tiny bone, it has created an unexpected shuffle of events. And life as I knew it changed.
I like this photo because it is a freeze frame of motion. Everything is in motion around the surface. It’s an intriguing word picture to me.
Imagine this water is a single freeze frame of your life, your world. The water is suspended from its natural path of change. Right now in this moment do some personal pondering. What is your status? Your emotions? Your thoughts? Who is close to you? How is your health? What are your responsibilities? What are your challenges?
Lift the freeze frame for a split second and each of those aspects of your life will change. The orange will plummet in relationship to the splashing water. The glass bowl will wobble and possibly move a teeny bit and the water will completely have changed in location and shape. This is life in a minute scenario but represents all of life when you get down to it.
Motion is constant and so change occurs on so many levels repeatedly, rapidly and relentlessly that our conscious mind is incapable of keeping up. This is the natural cycle of life.
Some changes we can detect through our senses. We can taste the change in milk when it becomes sour. We can hear the change in an instrument in need of tuning. We can feel the changes of temperature.
Life is a constant cycle of change. Seasons change in most places in our world. Daytime changes into night. Seeds change into plants, flowers, vegetables or trees. Caterpillars change into gorgeous butterflies. Growth and change are all around us. It should be expected as a familiar friend but somehow in our personal lives, change can scare us.
A new opportunity arises for learning. What is our first response? Excitement, fear or something else? I encourage you to welcome the change. Our knowledge can increase by embracing the change. Our interests can change with the newly acquired information which can change how we spend time and with whom. Change can be a flurry of FLURISHING, if we do not give in to fear.
The loss of someone dear changes everything. Suddenly there is a gaping hole in the fabric of our soul and an emptiness in our heart. Our thoughts change—Things we rarely thought about now become so precious: The sound of their footsteps crossing the floor. The smiles and sense of humor that could so easily annoy us. The scent of their signature perfume, cologne or body scent lingering on their clothes. The simple sense of their presence in our lives is missed. But EVEN this our God can use for our good. Good changes. It’s one of the hardest changes in life to master and entrust to God. But as all other change we cannot escape it, nor control it. MJT! Must Just Trust!
Our great God is always with us, even to the end of this age! (See Matthew 28:20b). He implores you to trust Him and His perfect love that casts out all fear. “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love.” I John 4:18 New Living translation
The point here is that fear (and anxiety being generalized fear) is one of the greatest enemies and obstacles to a FLURISHING life. I have fought against various fears most of my life and I see the insidious nature of it and why our LORD tells us NOT TO BE AFRAID but to trust HIM instead, repeatedly in the Bible. (Over 500 times throughout the Old and New Testaments in various ways, but who’s counting?)
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever!!!”
King James Bible
In light of the above truth, ask God to help you defeat fear and/or anxiety of change. OUR GOD IS THEE ONLY UNCHANGEABLE FACT IN OUR EXISTENCE. Ask Him to help you trust Him with whatever changes you face now in this moment and beyond. He can turn your fear into FLURISHING!!! I know firsthand and it is AMAZING!!!
Shine on. . .
karan k
