change
/tʃeɪn(d)ʒ/
replace (something) with something else, especially something of the same kind that is newer or better;
As I sit down to share my thoughts around the subject of change, I find myself in the very vortex of major change on many fronts in my own life. Within a few months, so much of what was familiar & safe has washed away, leaving me feeling vulnerable and anxious about the future, despite my faith & trust in the Unchanging One.
Before this season I would have described myself as pretty flexible, open to change and able to embrace shifting seasons. I’ve realised in reality most of us are happy with changes we’ve decided on & made ourselves, but when change is imposed on us by others or by circumstances beyond our control, we are often left reeling in the wake of the comfortable, safe & familiar being uprooted from our lives.
So what do we do when we face winds of difficult change, the kind of change that takes our breath away & makes us long to go back to the way things were when life was safe & comfortable & familiar?
Join me as I share a few valuable truths that have helped me to navigate my own stormy seas of change, I hope you find truth & the courage to navigate your own change too :
1. Read the definition of change above and be encouraged. Change replaces whatever was there with new or better. God is not a stagnant God. He never changes, but He is always on the move & He wants us to be on the move too. Our lives are journeys of movement and change; He doesn’t want us to live & die in the same spot, living the same year on repeat. He loves to change the scenery; broaden the horizon; take us on new adventures and sometimes shake all that can be shaken so that the unshakeable is left. Choose to change forward, not looking back longing for the way things were.
ISAIAH 43 (MSG) jolted me recently when I realised I kept wishing to rewind & go back to my life before the change.
“Forget about what’s happened;
Don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present.
I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out. Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert.”
2. Think of the caterpillar tightly wound, safe and secure within the confines of the cocoon and probably happy to stay there forever. But as it transforms and undergoes a metamorphasis, it can no longer stay within the confines of the cocoon. It is essential to the process of change that it pushes through the painful exit from the cocoon in order to fly. It simply must change in order to grow and become the butterfly it was created to be. There must be radical transformation & a process of change, those beautiful new wings just simply can’t stay wound up & locked within the cocoon. So, imagine your own journey of change right now as the emergence from the cocoon – pushing through painfully, releasing the familiar, letting go of the shell in order to fly.
And finally, hold on to the One who remains the same come what may. The Unchanging Father who has promised “For I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) When change uproots your normal and the rug is pulled from under you, remember that your life is built on the Rock; that no change takes Your Father by surprise and He engineers all change FOR YOUR GOOD.
Through my season of change I’m holding on to this one unfailing truth - The Sovereign Hand of God presides over all – the economy of our country, the wrong decisions of man, the pain of relationship, change and loss of all forms ultimately bow their knee to the One who is Sovereign. His perfect plan for my life will never be thwarted, and is still on track and on course despite how vulnerable and unsure I may feel.
Watch this space – and yours – to see the butterfly emerge…and emerge it shall :)
Blessings
Mandi
Women of Reverence welcomes our guest contributor Mandi Arnold.
Mandi is a single Mom of two gorgeous adopted girls. Having been in the corporate world for 25 years, I took the leap to start my own business in 2017, and have loved the entrepreneurial journey!
I wear a few hats in my business, doing corporate interior decorating; assisting with marketing of venues and in partnership in a bespoke bedding & room décor company called Room-in-a-Box.
My decorating FB page link https://www.facebook.com/workflow.enrichingspaces
A recently launched venue in KZN https://www.facebook.com/TheJunction.venue
And https://www.facebook.com/revampingspaces.in.a.box.delivered