More Change

By Tim Knapp

Having just returned home from helping some great friends load up their belongings, I'm reminded of how ongoing change is. And how challenging change is. And how heartbreaking it can be. We've been told of how transient friendships can be here in the city...today we're reminded of that. So many come and go; things change, new directions, new turns.

Yet with all that change brings, I'm also reminded of how liberating and refreshing it can be. They say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I'll need some time to wrap my head around that one. But I do think resisting change is a futile exercise. What person, what family, what church can keep change from occurring? How can we keep our kids home, when we raise and work to prepare them to enter a world awaiting them? How can we continue to do what we've always done, thinking what worked ten--no two--years ago will work tomorrow? Why do we hold onto the way things are, thinking life can continue as it always has? It won't. It can't.

If there's one thing for sure, it's that the world's a changin', so to speak. Nothing stays the same...except what we refuse to adjust, or what we hold on to, too tightly. Then they change. No longer effective, no longer useful. I've had to turn loose a few things lately. Some I was willing to see go; others were torn away. Change has a way of coming whether you want it or not. Question is, will we embrace it or resist?

I love change--good change, that is. Change is exciting, brings new stuff, new scenery, and new people. But today it brought pain as I said goodbye to a great friend moving eight states away. Sometimes you make a great friend in a few minutes; usually it takes a life time. But either way, it's hard to see them go. Same with a son, same with a dad. Yet even when it's painful, it can be freeing. Freeing because change that's embraced becomes change with meaning. And freeing because I know we're not bound to live useless lives that have no joy or purpose. I'm glad the one who loves us knows the plans he has for us. And these too are plans for change.