Chaplain's Corner

Change

  • Larry Hirst, Author
  • Retired Chaplain, Bethesda Place

“Change is in the wind” – when isn’t it. As far as the winds of change go, they never quit blowing; sometimes gently and sometimes with a ferocity that scares us. Most often it seems the changes happen beyond our control but from time to time there are changes that we initiate and oversee. I have often longed that things would just stand still for a short while. But they never do, change happens in us, to us and all around us and there is nothing we can do to stop change from taking place. Our choice is either to resist the change, accommodate the change or realize that all these changes cannot change one thing: God. Blow as they might, change has the potential to work for our own development and good.

It seems that resisting change is a natural, knee-jerk response. I know for me that many times when change takes place I decide before I even know what the change looks like or what implications it will have that I don’t like it and it will not be a good thing. Quite a few years back I resisted getting a touch-tone phone (I preferred the dial type – oops my age is showing). I held out for a long time until finally I gave into the change because every time I got an answering service, I was being instructed to “press 1” if I wanted this or “press 2” if I wanted that and the frustration of not being able to follow these instructions finally motivated me to exchange my dial phone for a tough-tone one.

I finally accommodated the change, reluctantly, but it simply became a necessity. This is how it usually works, we resist and resists and resists until we realize that resistance is futile then we accommodate the change, never really embracing it, never really seeking to understand it, we just allow it to wiggle its way into our lives because we conclude we have no choice.

But, what would happen if we could short circuit that resistance and reluctant accommodation and choose to embrace the change and make it work for our good?  I can’t really say I have ever been able to do that very quickly.

A while back I struggled to accept a particular change that happened in my life. In fact the change bummed me out so much I experience a serious depression for about 9 months. I contemplated suicide for months, I began seeing a counselor and before it was all over I spent about 10 years seeing a counselor or psychiatrist quite regularly. Finally I had no energy left to resist the change. It had happened, there was no changing it back, resistance almost killed me and years of accommodation left me weary and heavy hearted.

Then one day I made a choice. It really was quite simple. I chose to accept the change, really accept it and with that choice peace began to return to my heart, I began to experience joy again and I was able to see the change for what it was: the natural, even predictable development that resulted from a whole bunch of factors that I had no control over. And to my great surprise, when I did this, I was able to see the good in the change.

And maybe that’s the point: when changes happen that I have no control over we can chose to accept the change for what it is and in so doing safe ourselves all the wasted energy that resistance requires. I have found that when I do this, I begin to see that God was behind that change all along and in accepting his movement in my life, there’s peace and joy and a reminder that ultimately, he’s in control.

Chaplain's Corner was written by Bethesda Place now retired chaplain Larry Hirst. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely that of the writer and do not represent the views or opinions of people, institutions or organizations that the writer may have been associated with professionally.