CHANGE

CHANGE

Change:  “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of something different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone”.  That’s the dictionary definition of the word “change.”  Right now at my school we are in the middle of “change.”  We have gone from the quarter system to the semester system, and that change has been and is still hard.  Students are finding the changes difficult, but the teachers have had an incredible challenge.  I am having trouble even remembering when my classes begin and end.  The syllabi had to be changed; the assignment schedule had to be changed; and on and on it goes.

          Actually, change scares me.  I like things to stay the same.  I am not an adventurous cook—I cook the way I always have.  I don’t like change in my home—I decide where the furniture should be and it will be that way for years to come.  I am still coming to terms with computers, though that sounds silly since I teach online classes.  I am afraid of trying new things on the computer, though, afraid that somehow I will mess things up.  Adjusting to change is a challenge for me.

          Life is full of changes, some big, some small.  Actually, though the semester change has been difficult, it is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of life.  The same cannot be said for many of our changes:  marriage, children, job, empty nest, illness.  Some are good changes.  Some are bad.  Some seem bad, but have ultimate good results.

          I tend to yearn for the old ways, the old times.  I put a rosy haze around the past, sometimes masking reality.  But I don’t want to live like that.  I want to embrace the changes.  I want to learn, to grow, to reach forward.  I have a Mary Englebreit plaque that says, “Don’t look back.  You’re not going that way.”  Paul has a better way of saying it,

“One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)  So I’m reaching.

          EMBRACE THE CHANGE!

                                                                   ~~Faith Lamb