Positive Change

 By Brenda Rivas, Communications Manager

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.     --Viktor E. Frankl


Change is not an easy thing for people. We are hard wired to resist it. Even our physiology finds change difficult; just think of how much our bodies put up a fight when we want to lose a few extra pounds. 

Still change happens everyday, all around us. Day turns into night and back to day. Summer becomes fall, then winter, then spring, and the cycle begins again. Every year we grow older. Eventually our hair grows whiter and our skin grows more wrinkled. 

So, with all the change going on around us, why do we still fight to keep so much of our lives the same? Why do we hold on so tight to so many of the things we could let go? Is it fear? Is it a desire to avoid what makes us uncomfortable? Does it really matter why, when the world will continue to shift and change and progress whether we want it to or not?

Think of 2020 and how much the world changed in the span of one year. I don’t know a single person who didn’t resist some of the change we experienced due to the global pandemic that forced us all to let go in one way or another. Those big changes that came on so quickly overshadowed a smaller one. 2020 was the start of a new decade. I don’t know about you, but there is something positive about the start of a new decade for me. There is a tiny bit of hope that comes from that subtle change.

Every new decade has been a time of reflection in my life. A time to look back at myself, my goals, my struggles, and even my failures. I like to dive deeper, to see what changes have come into my life due to outside circumstances and what changes have I made proactively for myself. It’s a chance for me to, in a way, reinvent myself. Do I still want the same things for my future? Have I accomplished everything I set out to? Have I discovered new passions that I want to pursue? Am I still feeling called to where I am and what I am doing? Or do I feel called in a new direction?

I won’t say that sitting down with these questions is an easy thing to do. Thinking about our lives and even considering change is a scary and challenging task. But it is a necessary part of life. Change allows us to grow as people. Change allows us the opportunity to develop resiliency, compassion, patience, and so many other gifts. Change can even bring hope and open the heart to love. 

Now that the world has begun to shift back to many of the things we were accustomed to pre-pandemic, will you simply do your best to return to some kind of “normal”? Or will you look at this decade as a chance to further embrace change? Will you see the 2020s as a time to proactively make some positive self-directed change in your life?  I know that I will be working towards making more positive changes in mine.


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