CHANGE IS COMING

There is an old joke about change in the church: How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb? Seven. One to change the bulb and six to talk about how much better the old bulb was. Change often drives us crazy and brings out a boatload of anxiety and fear. Yet the only thing that never changes is the presence of change itself.

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Over the last couple of weeks, the staff has been facing lots of changes as desks, chairs, files, and supplies have been moved to make way for new paint and carpet. Unmoored from our workspaces, we have faced the chaos that comes with change. Like all humans, it is amazing how anxious and afraid we can become when we can’t find our favorite stapler or imagine working in a new space. When a flaw in our plan is revealed, we can come a little unglued. Little things can feel like very big things.

Maybe we sometimes react to the little things so strongly because we live in a world where big, and often terrifying, changes are taking place, we feel rather helpless when it comes to the big things. So, when little things we usually control are assailed by change, we get upset and resistant. As Buddha however taught: Change is never painful, only the resistance to change is painful.

The truth is that the only thing I can ultimately control is my response to the changes that come. Change is constant. “From morning to evening conditions change; all things move swiftly before the Lord.” (Sirach 18:26) So, if we can’t avoid change avoid change how do we face the fear and emotional reactivity that arises in us when change occurs, how do we respond?

It seems to me that the first response to change is acceptance or letting it go. We all too often get all wound up about things that really are not that big a deal. I mean, do I really need to get upset because the grocer stops carrying my favorite potato chip or because I don’t care for the halftime performer at the Super Bowl? Trust that things will work out. Julian of Norwich said, “All will be well, all manner of things will be well.”  If we are constantly giving into our fears, we lose hope.

A second response to change is adaptation. One of the most powerful evolutionary characteristics of the human animal is adaptation. As Spencer Johnson noted in his book, “Who Moved my Cheese? “If you do not change. You can become extinct.”  When we stubbornly rail at the change we face, we eventually are left behind, anger and bitter because we refused to adapt. In his book, Reaching Out, Henri Nouwen puts it this way: “Our preoccupations prevent our having new experiences and keep us hanging on to the familiar ways.”

The third response to change is resistance. It comes with Buddha’s warning that pain and resistance are yoked. When change brings injustice, harm to the innocent, when it undermines the things of God revealed in Christ, then we must resist the change. We should do what we can, with what we have, where we are at. Count the cost, because not all change should be met with resistance.

In the end, as people of faith, we should always cling to the faithfulness of God in the face of changes, whether they are for good or for ill. My go to passage of scripture as change swirls all around and I feel my emotions getting the best of me, is from Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult. (Psalms 46:1-3)

Pax Christi,
Tim Olson – Lead Pastor
 
Used with permission – iStock Photos gguy44