Monday, March 10, 2008

CHANGE

There is this saying that goes "The more things change, the more things stay the same." I want someone to tell me how that is. Like give me an example. I'm not getting it. Change for me is a major event. Even if it is a change that I am expecting or planning, it is still major. Causing unsettledness and discomfort -- usually, not always. And that may be okay, but it still is a disruption to the rhythm of my life.

Many changes I can 'take in stride.' Don't you love all these little sayings that we use to describe things for ourselves. Stride. Well to take it in stride means that the rhythm does NOT change. In order for that to happen, requires a great deal of concentration. Read self discipline. Maybe even preplanning. And even though the obvious stride does not change does not mean that the inner stride follows suit. In order to appear that the change is accepted may mean an internal upheaval. Which, of course, will eventually throw one off stride. Oh, dear.

I have survived any number of life changes. Too many to enumerate. Most of them pretty ordinary. Still in all some of them pretty major for me. More changes are coming, of course. That's life. What is worrisome, however, is how I will experience the changes, and how I will handle the changes. OR will the changes handle me?

Grace Church is going to change. What we look like and what we are is going to be way different than what I now know it to be. This gives me feelings of expectation and apprehension. I don't know what the changes will be. There is nothing to prepare me for the newness that is coming. The expectation is that it is necessary for our survival and it will be good. The apprehension is that I do not see myself in the new. Will this old self fit in to the new fabric of Grace Church?