Have there been times in your life when changes came at you too fast? At
the pace of spit wads fired from the fifth grader in the back of the class.
Many of life’s changes are good ones, not even resembling spit wads. But both welcomed and unwelcomed changes
create a period of adjustment until they are rated as the ‘new normal.’ I find
a certain comfort when the latest new change isn’t new anymore and I feel settled
again.
Sometimes the changes come so rapidly, there isn’t time to settle in. I
was reminded of this the last few weeks watching my daughter and her newborn baby.
With babies, just when you’ve found your rhythm, they hit a growth spurt and
change up the schedule. About the time their
swaddles and mittens are normal, they free their arms and legs and then onesies
become the new normal.
Change is
often caused by growth. Things change because we change. Stagnation is not a normal we want to
stay in.
Change. Grow. Find
your new normal.
It is cyclic.
Change. Grow. Find
your new normal.
The other thing I know about change is it is the only thing that stays
the same. Change is constant. Once we accept that changes are
going to keep knocking on our door, we can get ready to open the door.
First look through the peephole and determine if you need to call the
police. Some changes are meant to destroy us, so they just need to be
sent away. Some changes I don’t let in and my weapon of choice is prayer
because the effective, fervent prayer of
a righteous man avails much. [James 5:16, NKJV]
If the change on the other side of your peephole is one you recognize as
difficult but necessary, then gather your strength. I like to do that the
same way King David did. But David found
strength in the Lord. [1 Samuel 30:6, NIV] After you’ve gathered your
strength, open the door and invite your change to sit down for supper and show
it where you keep the guest towels.
If the change looks more like FTD delivering a fresh bouquet of flowers, put it in your prettiest vase
and write a thank you note to the sender. Remember where your blessings come
from and why you are blessed. And God is
able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all
that you need you will abound in every good work. [2 Cor 9:8, NIV]
Then there are seasons when the knocks on your door come in rapid
succession like a stream of trick or treaters, a mix of cute and scary. In
these seasons, we sometimes need to lighten our load to sustain our energy and
reduce the momentum of the waves of change. We find Paul doing just that in a
storm in Acts 27. And because we were
exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third
day we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands. [Acts
27:18-19, NKJV] That sounds like some serious load lightening! But wait,
there’s more nine verses later on the 14th day of the storm. So when they had eaten enough, they
lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. [Acts 17:38, NKJV]
Wow! Now that is difficult re-prioritization! We can’t keep everything on our
schedule because we must focus on the changes at hand.
Are you living through a change cycle that is so fast it is messing with your sense
of normalcy right now?
It might be a non-stop stretch
of bad news that is taking you to the breaking point.
It might be a truckload of
blessings that are almost too much to handle at once.
It might be a health problem
that throws a new symptom at you every few days.
It might be a new pace that
requires you to speed up life or to slow it down.
Just hang on and know that a new normal will come. And then another. And
another. Because new normals don’t stay.
What does stay is the anchor of our soul. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. [Heb
6:19, NIV]
Ask Him to go along with you the next time change knocks at your door.
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