Saint and Scripture Sunday

Every time I read this meditation I think of my niece Angie. She has had so many changes in her life over the past few years. Dealing with constant pain, two surgeries, loss of job, children in college, a new teenager, constant battles with the insurance companies. Her ability to deal with all this simply shows me her strong faith.

The universal human yearning (is) for something permanent, enduring, without shadow of change. - Willa Cather

The spector of change builds dread in most of us. We fear the effects on our personal lives. We lack faith that the impending change will benefit us. Only time can assure us of that. And it will, just as every change we've survived up to now has done.

Changes are gifts, really. They come as hallmarks to our present attainments. They signify successful growth. And they announce our readiness for more growth. How we struggle to understand this, and how quickly we forget it once we have adapted to the change. The struggle is then repeated the next time change visits us.

We long for permanence, believing it guarantees security, not realizing the only real security available to us comes with our trust in God, from whom all change comes as a blessing on the growth we've attained. If we were to experience total lack of change, we'd find death. Life is challenge, continued change, always endurable and growth-enhancing. We can reflect on what's gone before, and trust that which faces us now.

Change means I am progressing, on course.