Tuesday 28 August 2012

Moving on ..experiencing change



Hi,
Welcome to my 'School of Thoughts'.

Have you bought an apple for the teacher? Actually, any fruit will do. I'm not fussy. But I have a confession to make - I'm not really a teacher, either, although it does run in the family. There is no homework to do and any 'lesson' you receive from these words is incidental.

Back to the picture here. It reminds us that some young people are getting ready to meet and greet their new teacher for the first time and may be viewing it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation - as indeed may their parents. It will bring a whole host of changes to their lives, some of which may be welcome and others not.

Change - what does that word conjure up for you?

Perhaps you embrace it gratefully

Perhaps you dread it
Perhaps you feel alternately scared and happy about it

A lot depends on the type of change and whether or not you have had any say in the matter.

When I developed M.E. over 20 years ago I was ill-prepared for how my life would change from the one I had envisaged and hoped for. Subsequent health problems steered me even further from my hopes and dreams.

What has helped me is summed up in this:


'What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us' ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Change can be very unsettling. The familiar can be reassuring and comforting.

We all need a place to feel safe and secure and people we can trust. That place can be our inner life with God - an anchor of stability in life's ever-changing circumstances.

We can have great turmoil going on around us yet be at peace because God either calms and quietens us in the midst of the storms or may indeed remove them if He chooses. This promise remains though:

'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid' ~ John 14:27

Here are a few suggestions for what the process of change may involve:
  • Courage
  • Hope
  • Adaptation
  • New - ways of thinking, doing, being
  • Grit - and determination to see it through
  • Energy - and enthusiasm helps

I'm sure you can think of many more - all suggestions welcome!

The poem below reflects the experience of leaving school but it could also be viewed as moving from any place where the leaving is final and the leave-taking is without choice. It was written with a degree of trepidation for facing the future, at a time before I fully trusted the One who holds the future in His hands.


'Reflections on Leaving School'


Barriers down -
They
shut me out
of their personal
prisons;
bars, locks,
bolts
of bitter regret.

Nothing
can chain the feeling
that 
walls are alive.
Places 
speak to me,
softly whispering
"Good-bye".

Do heartaches,
hopes
and inspirations
wither - 
or do they
endure
beyond this
Uniformed
sky?
©JoyLenton2012

6 comments:

  1. Very applicable to where I am at the moment Joy. Thanks for sharing this. I find in my current time of change I am like something floating on the waves. At times I am excited and looking forward to the change. At others i am scared because I still don't know where i am going or what I am going to do when I get there. I only know I have to leave here in a month and that God is with me - and He loves me beyond measure! Thank you for reminding me He gives me His peace. Blessings to you.

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    1. I am so glad it spoke to you Lynda. The varying emotions you are experiencing are only too familiar when entering a time of change. Our hope rests most in He who changes not. May His peace envelop and sustain you. Blessings.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this, Joy. Your writing and beautiful poem remind us how challenging change can be! When things change too quickly, or we feel out of control, we sometimes yearn for stability. When things seem to stagnate or frustrate, we long for the winds of change to stir us up again to stop us getting bedsores (physical or spiritual!). I guess if we're determined to grow more and more flexible to the Spirit's breathing things forward, we can be sure we'll not go off course even when sidelined for a while! Blessings xxx

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    1. Thanks for your comments and insights Jobsika. I love the analogy about bedsores - appeals to the nurse in me!

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  3. Oh, yes. Change is so much easier to handle when we are trusting fully in God--yet I am not sure I would ever say it is "easy". I was just contemplating yesterday how when it feels like our world is crumbling, often the Lord just has a better path He is building for our lives. It's not always easy. With Him by our sides, though, it is always blessed in the end.

    Your writing style is inviting. :)

    Blessings,
    Sheila (aka "@HastenHome" on Twitter) :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sheila. Thanks for your lovely comments. Your expression of hope in a better path than the one we may be on echoes my own thoughts. Yet life can easily steer us off course as we long to have rapid solutions to our problems and concerns. Certainly, we are blessed to have reassurance of a great future in the end when we trust in God.

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