Embracing Change

(This week’s BDC was written by Rev Gareth Killeen)

DAILY BYTE

2011 is nearly over and we all find ourselves yet another year older. Some of us find getting old and all the changes associated with increasing age hard to cope with. I recently came across the following list which humorously deals with getting older:

“You know you are getting older ... when most of your dreams are re-runs; when the airline attendant offers you ‘coffee, tea or milk-of-magnesia’; when you sit down in your rocking chair and can’t get it started; when you watch a pretty girl walk by and your pace-maker opens a nearby garage door”.

But of course age is not the only change we struggle with. The world around us seems to evolve with ever increasing rapidity. For example, we have constant technological changes. New technologies are constantly hitting the markets. By the time you get your new PC home and out of the box, it is already outdated by a newer model!

We also have constantly evolving cosmological changes. This is just a fancy way of saying that what we know about the universe, and the way we view the world around us, are shifting all the time. Scientists are constantly changing their minds about stuff like how the world came into being, whether Pluto can be considered a planet or not, and what ingredients may or may not cause cancer.

I guess what I am trying to say is that whether we like it or not, change happens! As much as we may sometimes struggle with it, change is a fact of life. As Heraklietos once said: “Change alone is unchanging”.

Alvin Toffler, author of the best-selling “Future Shock”, says that when people go through times of change, they need what he calls, “islands of stability”. What he is meaning is that we need to learn what we can hold onto and what we can let go of when our circumstances change. For example, we need to let go of our resistance to change and our fixation with things as they once may have been. We need to embrace the fact of change.

But we also need to know that as we move into an ever-changing future, there are certain things we can still hold onto as being dependable and true, our “islands of stability”.

Read today’s focus reading (Hebrews 13:8), and then remind yourself that no matter what happens in our lives, God’s love for us always has been and always will be. We are God’s beloved children yesterday, today and tomorrow. God will never stop reaching out to us and God will never let go of us.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, in our constantly changing society, it is good to remember that your love for us always has been and always will be. That you will never let go of us and never give up on us. Give us strength to hold onto this timeless and unchanging truth. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.