Well, here we go again. Another whammy to the continuity, structure and the very border of our Canadian lives. Let's take a knee and pray on it.
It's probably a good idea to ask yourself, 'Has your life really ever stayed the same, from day to day?' Maybe in the short term, but the inevitable always intervenes and life changes. In fact, as the saying goes, "The more things change, the more things stay the same." I've said this to people and received a look like I had two heads.
The difficulty of adjusting to change has to due with fear. The idea, what we don't know will hurt us. Sooo many times the unexpected has come out of left field and thrown our plans into disarray. So, consequently, we build in a reflex response to change. We fight or we try to flee. Both are unfortunate, as they are an adrenaline response to change.
I'd like to offer another possible approach to change.If you are a person who believes all life is a series of random events, then, ironically, you should already be used to change. However, in my experience, those who view life this way frequently experience difficulty with change. Seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? This stems from, a chaotic perspective which keeps them in a constant state of conflict, internally. Everything being only random leaves one with a sense of powerlessness and stress in life. This sense reinforces the idea of either continually bracing or giving up entirely. Both of these conditions are exhausting ways to live. This is the comment most people who live their lives this way have shared with me, in times of counselling. Well, like Dr. Phil says, "How's that workin' for ya?" Naturally, I encourage them to look at life a little differently, since their approach is leaving them in a state of stress. You see, the largest part of the impact of stress does not come from the conditions around us and the fluidity of their nature but rather from how we respond to them inwardly.
If you are a person who believes life has rhyme and/or reason, meaning it has some sort of order or direction, then stress can often come from trying to figure out that pattern. This is an effort to plan to fight, to capitalize on the potential of the way things will move before they do. It's an attempt to develop a strategy to handle that or manage the way it impacts our circumstances, at least. Just look at financial investors, real estate agents and the insurance industry. We are inundated with the need for control. The problem is dwelling on this. Trying to anticipate change can be a crazy maker. The how of, how do we know what's going to happen next month, week or even tomorrow?Oh, certainly, we can approximate and roughly arrange things according to this expectation, but we can never be right all the time.
So, what's the healthy way to approach things when we come up to it? First, we must fundamentally accept the idea, "Change is a part of life." Did you get that? It's a 'part' of life but not the controlling aspect. There are other parts to life, like intimate relationships, which are always in growth, so flux. There is the community we live in, filled with an amazing variety of individuals, all different, yet at the core, human and relatable, IF we will change and do the work to know them.
In Matthew 6:25, Jesus counsels us not to worry about things far down the road but to simply concern ourselves with things more immediately and entrust the rest to God. He goes on to say, there are enough things to handle now. He is not advocating neglect of the future but rather leaving anxiety to the side and approaching things one step at a time.
When was the last time you talked to that person you've been seeing around town? Even if they approach life differently than you do, it can be quite interesting to get to know them and even see life from another perspective. Hey, this is a change, but it doesn't have to compel you to change your whole approach to life. It's just, in the effort, you may find you are not alone after all. In some ways, this person sees things like you; in other ways, this other person does. You may also find you have something good to offer for them to consider. Remember Sesame Street... "Shaarring."
In conversations with others and circumstances in one's life, we don't have to dominate or submit all the time. It can simply be the ebb of the old and flow of newness coming together to see what's what. IF we stand back and look at it, the pieces will make a tapestry of a kind of abstract realism art. There's still a picture there.
Sure, things change, they always have, no surprise but they stay the same in that we are in it together. So let's "Love our neighbour," find that encouraging word to drop into their day. It'll lift you, too.
So here is one of those encouraging words. The Bible advocates thankful-filled prayer as a way to navigate forward. Philippians 4:5-8 states, "(5) Always be gentle with others... (6) Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. [The remaining verses address the way believers in Christ understand the same issue] (7) Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. (8) Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don't ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise."
Protecting the reputation of those who are serving us in government and other types of public service (even if we don't see eye to eye with their approach), building up another, and seeing what's still working by looking for it, these are things which invest in the life we live. So, let's not listen to the fearmonger or 'nay-sayer' around us or within us. Instead, as the Bible repeatedly shares all throughout, let's 'love our neighbour.' This can be a very healthy change to reality. There are plenty of aspects to life more deserving of our attention than what makes us anxious. In fact, when we focus on the good things around us, we find they correspond with good gifts within us, just waiting to express themselves. These gifts are only experienced by us when we share them with others.
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