My status on facebook last week was a comment about the weariness I was feeling over the changes in my life in recent days. A friend commented that change can be good. She’s right but I wasn’t feeling it. Not that day. So, what’s so great about change anyway?
But wow, change after change after change has yanked the ankles of my heart in an effort to trip me up emotionally. So it feels anyway. Even the selling of our van evoked tears. I know, how crazy is that? I get that the selling of a vehicle is not something to mourn but I guess an emotional attachment developed between the van and I over the years when it transported so many kids to so many activities on so many occasions. It seems that in some strange way our van takes with it the tale of our two boys growing up. It took them and picked them up from school. Andy shut his finger in its sliding door. Both boys learned to drive in it. Ben drove it into the neighbor’s yard the day he got his permit ... on accident and in reverse! That van safely carried our family to and from assorted vacations. When we tried to sell it the first time, Andy’s 15 year old buddies protested saying, “Mrs. J. you just can’t let Mr. Jameson sell the van! Not the Jameson mobile!” We honored their request and kept it about two years longer than we should have. Smile. The seemingly sentimental attachment caught me off guard.
So much change! The one thing in life you can count on is that you can’t count on things staying the same. Very little does. Not forever. Even when relationships are stable and marked by loyalty, things change. Health, bodies, youth, relationships, finances, responsibilities, seasons, family dynamics and on and on it goes. Change can be good. My friend was right. I get it. Change can offer moments of serendipity (desirable discoveries by accident). Change can call out the best in someone and can bring people together. On the other hand, change can be debilitating. It can offer disappointment and ignite grief, bring out the worst in someone and can tear people apart. Change can feel like a noose around the neck, threatening at any moment to choke the life out of someone or something.
The prophet Malachi may have been a personality that resisted change. Some people are wired that way, unlike me. At least typically. I have to wonder if Malachi resisted change, or at least felt its threat. He wrote in chapter 3, verse 6, “I the Lord do not change therefore, you, O Sherilyn are not consumed.” (I always put my name in the place of “the descendants of Jacob" because I am!) The Hebrew word for “consumed” (some Bible versions say “destroyed”) means to be overwhelmed. That’s what makes change so unbearable. At least at first .... change makes us feel overwhelmed. By the unknown and the unfamiliar .... and both make us feel uncomfortable. Out-of-control. Unsettled. But Malachi offers a big sigh of relief. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (sigh) ... when all else is changing, we can count on one who does not. Change does not have to overwhelm us. Make us uncomfortable, feel out-of-control or unsettled. That is something that is so good about change. And about God.
But wow, change after change after change has yanked the ankles of my heart in an effort to trip me up emotionally. So it feels anyway. Even the selling of our van evoked tears. I know, how crazy is that? I get that the selling of a vehicle is not something to mourn but I guess an emotional attachment developed between the van and I over the years when it transported so many kids to so many activities on so many occasions. It seems that in some strange way our van takes with it the tale of our two boys growing up. It took them and picked them up from school. Andy shut his finger in its sliding door. Both boys learned to drive in it. Ben drove it into the neighbor’s yard the day he got his permit ... on accident and in reverse! That van safely carried our family to and from assorted vacations. When we tried to sell it the first time, Andy’s 15 year old buddies protested saying, “Mrs. J. you just can’t let Mr. Jameson sell the van! Not the Jameson mobile!” We honored their request and kept it about two years longer than we should have. Smile. The seemingly sentimental attachment caught me off guard.
So much change! The one thing in life you can count on is that you can’t count on things staying the same. Very little does. Not forever. Even when relationships are stable and marked by loyalty, things change. Health, bodies, youth, relationships, finances, responsibilities, seasons, family dynamics and on and on it goes. Change can be good. My friend was right. I get it. Change can offer moments of serendipity (desirable discoveries by accident). Change can call out the best in someone and can bring people together. On the other hand, change can be debilitating. It can offer disappointment and ignite grief, bring out the worst in someone and can tear people apart. Change can feel like a noose around the neck, threatening at any moment to choke the life out of someone or something.
The prophet Malachi may have been a personality that resisted change. Some people are wired that way, unlike me. At least typically. I have to wonder if Malachi resisted change, or at least felt its threat. He wrote in chapter 3, verse 6, “I the Lord do not change therefore, you, O Sherilyn are not consumed.” (I always put my name in the place of “the descendants of Jacob" because I am!) The Hebrew word for “consumed” (some Bible versions say “destroyed”) means to be overwhelmed. That’s what makes change so unbearable. At least at first .... change makes us feel overwhelmed. By the unknown and the unfamiliar .... and both make us feel uncomfortable. Out-of-control. Unsettled. But Malachi offers a big sigh of relief. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (sigh) ... when all else is changing, we can count on one who does not. Change does not have to overwhelm us. Make us uncomfortable, feel out-of-control or unsettled. That is something that is so good about change. And about God.
No comments:
Post a Comment