Category: Change

Music can speak for us sometimes. When words fail, music can express what’s in the heart. As Holy days approach, we are not always open to the comfort and joy of the season. For some, health concerns are at the forefront. Others struggle with relationships. Some have financial worries and others feel the sense of hopelessness they see on television news.

We cannot help but grieve for the children and families of Syria. We witness continual gun violence with horror. We feel desperation with immigrants who fear deportation and with young people who live with the fear that violence will cut their lives short. We are anguished by the threat of terrorism in our country and beyond.

And we wonder if Christmas will make a difference. Broken spirits ask the question sung by recording artist, Faith Hill.

Where are you Christmas?
Why can’t I find you?
Why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me?
Why can’t I hear music play?

My world is changing;
I’m rearranging.
Does that mean Christmas changes too?

Yet, we once again wait for the coming of a Savior, one who always reminds us of peace on earth and good will for every person. Unto us a child is born, and because of His coming, we are reborn. The guiding star of Bethlehem still shines upon us. That doesn’t change, even in the shifting winds that threaten to rearrange our lives.

The song ends with these words:

I feel you Christmas;
I know I’ve found you.
You never fade away.
The joy of Christmas
Stays here inside us,
Fills each and every heart with love.

May God make it so for each of us.

Life is very much about standing to face the wind, constantly being blown about by change. It can be tumultuous at times. It can blow gently and change the little things about us. It can be gale-force and rearrange everything we cling to.

The important questions are these: Who will I be in the face of the winds? Will anxiety paralyze me? Will I be afraid? Will I be in a state of turmoil? Or is it possible that I will be that steady center, that constant and consistent presence that stands immovable?

This one thing I know. When God is our anchor, the winds can blow on and we will stand steady. We will “surprise ourselves with the strength we have to face the wind.” So let us hear, with faith in ourselves, the summons from Bishop Stephen Charleston.

Let’s do something surprising. In the midst of anxiety, let us be unafraid. In the time of anger, let us be peaceful. In the heart of turmoil, let us be a steady center… Let us do something different. Let us be the rallying point for faith, the constant and consistent presence of a love that embodies justice, the quiet truth that knits lives together. Let us surprise ourselves with the strength we have when we stand to face the wind.

– Steven Charleston

“Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed and rearranged to relocate us to the place we are meant to be. It can be an unpleasant prospect, a life shake up. But we experience them all the time. Shake ups can come with the death of a loved one, an end of a relationship, moving from one place to another, losing a job, serious illness. All of these events, and more, hold the power to shake up and rearrange our lives. They can make us feel completely out of control.

The truth is that we don’t have control in the first place. And sometimes we feel as if our lives are guided by chance, fate, even karma. I prefer to believe that God is in control and that God uses every change to make us stronger and better. I like to think that change renews and rejuvenates, and ultimately, takes me to the place I am meant to be.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

– Jeremiah 29:11

“You can not step twice into the same river.”

That is a snippet of wisdom attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe. He spoke of certain and constant change a very long time ago, 535 BC – 475 BC, but his philosophy resonates as much today as it did when he wrote it centuries ago..

There have been many variants of his philosophy of change:

• Everything flows, nothing stands still.
• Nothing endures but change.
• Everything changes and nothing stands still.
• Everything flows and nothing stays.
• Everything flows and nothing abides.
• Everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
• All is flux, nothing stays still.

It is true that a river constantly flows, so by the time we step into it a second time, the river has changed. And the truth is that we change, too, every day, every minute, as we live out our lives. The well-lived life is one that embraces change as growth, that greets each new day as another chance.

But aren’t we all creatures who value sameness, who resist change because we fear it? Don’t we feel safer when nothing changes in any significant way? Don’t we struggle to maintain life as it is, with every yesterday being just like every tomorrow?

I like the idea of stepping with courage into that flowing and ever-changing river. And I like the wisdom of Alan W. Watts:

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”