Braving ChangeSample

Learning From Change: Stop and Reflect

Most change is hard, but let's remember that there is good change too.

Israel's deliverance from Egypt was a good change, but as we've read, they often struggled to see that it was good. They wanted to go back to their "meat pots" instead of being provided manna and quail by the God of the Universe. They saw God physically deliver them from their captors by some of the most spectacular signs and wonders recorded in all of history, yet they wondered if God had brought them out in the wilderness to die. Haven't we all been like this? Finding ourselves in the midst of answered prayer but crying out to God for another way?

How often do we miss the good change right in front of us because we're longing for the best parts of what used to be? Meanwhile, God is gently trying to nudge us along with an abundance of Patience and Loving-Kindness that I cannot comprehend.

Do I receive the goodness of God even though I need to grieve and walk through the necessary steps to get to a place of acceptance? Or do I reject it all before it rejects me? Do I mistake the pain of change and loss for punishment? Or understand that it simply comes with the territory of being human? And can I see the good right in front of me, even as I leave behind what used to be? Good change and transformation will continually come into our lives as we choose to abide in Christ no matter what we face.

Many a season, I've heard the Lord whisper to my heart when I'm longing for another word: Remain.

Sometimes that's our only directive.

It is the only way to bear fruit.

Questions and Prayer

• Question: How did you grow through your most recent change? What did you learn? Take some time to reflect on the Goodness of God. Celebrate the wins, even among the losses.
• Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time: accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your Will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.