The Meaning of Change

I was writing to an aunty today who had recently moved into a retirement village. It was thrust on her through mobility problems, so quite a shock after having lived in the same family home for the last 37 years. More of a shock perhaps, too, for the family who had to prepare the house for sale and minimise their mother’s belongings for her imminent shift.

As I spoke of change, in the time sense, I realised it had a lot to do with change in the monetary ‘cents’ (couldn’t help the pun!!!) When you receive change from the storekeeper you get back what is left from your money after your purchase. Change in the literal sense can also be viewed as what is left the same, after you have removed certain familiarities you once had.

In both situations you are making an exchange. In one, you get a purchase in exchange for some money. In the other, you are get some new experience in exchange for the toll it will have on your emotions as you mourn for the way things were. That is why we can often not look forward to change.

But if you were to embrace change not as a deficit for things lost, but as an adventure for new things as yet unseen, then you can come through changes in your life less battle-scarred. Change does not have to be a limiter – it can be a door-opener to your future.

I have embraced the changes I have gone through since arriving back from Samoa. Yes, it was hot, humid and not always the most pleasant place to be…but I do miss the basic lifestyle, and the good times shared with my husband in our little piece of paradise.

If I was to allow that to limit my future, by fretting for what I once had, I would have been a basket case by now! Instead, I have left that situation in the loving arms of my heavenly Father, and I am moving on with what He has planned for me in New Zealand. That is not coming without a price, too, though, as I struggle to find full-time teaching employment in a teacher-flush environment.

I have progressively worked through the change from my familiar primary teaching, to now be seeking out a new role in a secondary school. This has been a huge step of faith, as doors have closed again and again, but I know that God has a plan for me. He who has set out my plan from the beginning, will continue it through to completion, if I only let Him do so.

So with each rejection letter, or email, I simply use these as a guide to point me in the right direction. And I am getting closer to an appointment with every interview! I can cheerfully go through my days of waiting, knowing there will be an end, and it will be for my good. In the meantime, I have taken some university papers to help me achieve those goals.