Being Content with Change
Have you ever desired change, but been so afraid of what it would bring? Change is hard, but it can also be exciting! It’s starting over! It’s moving to a new place! It’s starting a new job! It’s changing your haircolor and feeling like a new person, but it is also loss, learning to live without someone, moving away from all you’ve ever known.
I’ve experienced plenty of change in my life and can relate to all the fears that come along with it. One continuous change that has happened with me is that I’ve moved sixteen times in nineteen years! Yes, crazy I know and no my husband is not in the military! Needless to say I am pretty used to change and kind of thrive on it now!
What I have learned about myself through all of that change is that I love new beginnings. I love a fresh clean slate. I love recreating new spaces! I think that’s why I love A New Year! Time to start fresh! One of the things I know change can bring is new struggle and new life lessons along the way. It’s one of the things I’ve loved to, dare I say, like about struggle and pain...Say what? Yes, I sound crazy and maybe I am. I mean, who loves struggle and pain? I don‘t love it in the midst of it, but I love what I know it brings. I love that after the struggle there is a new fresh start, a new lesson learned. After pain comes joy. So while I really don’t love pain, I love that it brings new life and new lessons learned. I know without the pain I wouldn’t be able to see the joy and the new beginnings.
I call myself a makeover Mama. It might be cheesy, but I have always loved a good makeover! I love seeing something old brought back to life. It started as a kid when I would makeover my teachers in my head. Not only did I makeover their personalities sometimes, but what I really enjoyed was making over their hair, makeup and outfit. I guess I didn’t realize that was the creative in me. I still love makeovers. I love the finished product. I certainly love the sense of accomplishment after it’s done, but I really enjoy the process too. I enjoy seeing something renewed and given life again. It’s seeing someone feel a bit better about themselves. It’s seeing a blank canvas in an empty room and coming up with an idea for decor. It’s thinking about something deep and creating a story from it. It’s writing lyrics to a poem or song and finding one word that started the thought process that helped you write that poem or song. It’s creating beauty in the world! I enjoy coming up with ways to decorate a new house. After sixteen of them, I’ve been able to get pretty creative.
I’ve realized and learned that God created us to create just as He did. I’ve also learned that it’s really the cycle of life. We struggle, we have pain and then there is beauty from the ashes. God renews us, molds us and recreates us each and every day if we let him. Wouldn’t it be sad if we never learned anything new and never had a lesson we learned? We would sit stagnant and still and be boring and almost fade into the dullness of ungrowth. If only while I was being refined I understood how good it was for me.
Why do we always long for the pain to be gone ASAP? Even when we know it is creating something new in us. I guess because we are human. We want pain relief and we want it now! I’ve learned in so many seasons of pain and seasons of wait that God is not taking the pain away or giving me what I’m waiting for because he is giving me the continual gift of recreating me.
I’m thankful for creativity and so many new ideas that I get for new things. Sometimes I have so many concepts in my head that I make myself crazy wondering how I can make them all happen? The amazing thing is, God doesn’t require us to make things happen. He just wants us to love Him and others and to live for him. He is reminding me many times over and over to sit still, be with him, know him and don’t rush the moments with another new idea. Just be in the moment with him. Accept where you’re at now and be content with it. Sometimes new ideas are for another day, week, month or year. Not for now.
Did u ever think God, the Creator actually stops creating? I believe He does. I believe He sits with us, and wants to just be with us as we are. Not as we could be one day, but as we are now, right here in this moment...just as He first created us to be...no more, no less. I’m realizing as I write, that this creative side of me does have to do with not being content. It’s feeling like life isn’t good enough the way it is. It’s always longing for more, more beauty, more color, more things, more makeup, more designs. What is it about human nature that keeps us from being content? It’s certainly the longing for Eden. It’s knowing God has so much more. It’s the desire we have to attain things. It’s being better. It’s being prettier. It’s being smarter. It’s being richer. If only we could accept ourselves flaws and all and stop to rest, to not create, to just be. Wouldn’t that be a life of freedom?
I’ve experienced plenty of change in my life and can relate to all the fears that come along with it. One continuous change that has happened with me is that I’ve moved sixteen times in nineteen years! Yes, crazy I know and no my husband is not in the military! Needless to say I am pretty used to change and kind of thrive on it now!
What I have learned about myself through all of that change is that I love new beginnings. I love a fresh clean slate. I love recreating new spaces! I think that’s why I love A New Year! Time to start fresh! One of the things I know change can bring is new struggle and new life lessons along the way. It’s one of the things I’ve loved to, dare I say, like about struggle and pain...Say what? Yes, I sound crazy and maybe I am. I mean, who loves struggle and pain? I don‘t love it in the midst of it, but I love what I know it brings. I love that after the struggle there is a new fresh start, a new lesson learned. After pain comes joy. So while I really don’t love pain, I love that it brings new life and new lessons learned. I know without the pain I wouldn’t be able to see the joy and the new beginnings.
I call myself a makeover Mama. It might be cheesy, but I have always loved a good makeover! I love seeing something old brought back to life. It started as a kid when I would makeover my teachers in my head. Not only did I makeover their personalities sometimes, but what I really enjoyed was making over their hair, makeup and outfit. I guess I didn’t realize that was the creative in me. I still love makeovers. I love the finished product. I certainly love the sense of accomplishment after it’s done, but I really enjoy the process too. I enjoy seeing something renewed and given life again. It’s seeing someone feel a bit better about themselves. It’s seeing a blank canvas in an empty room and coming up with an idea for decor. It’s thinking about something deep and creating a story from it. It’s writing lyrics to a poem or song and finding one word that started the thought process that helped you write that poem or song. It’s creating beauty in the world! I enjoy coming up with ways to decorate a new house. After sixteen of them, I’ve been able to get pretty creative.
I’ve realized and learned that God created us to create just as He did. I’ve also learned that it’s really the cycle of life. We struggle, we have pain and then there is beauty from the ashes. God renews us, molds us and recreates us each and every day if we let him. Wouldn’t it be sad if we never learned anything new and never had a lesson we learned? We would sit stagnant and still and be boring and almost fade into the dullness of ungrowth. If only while I was being refined I understood how good it was for me.
Why do we always long for the pain to be gone ASAP? Even when we know it is creating something new in us. I guess because we are human. We want pain relief and we want it now! I’ve learned in so many seasons of pain and seasons of wait that God is not taking the pain away or giving me what I’m waiting for because he is giving me the continual gift of recreating me.
I’m thankful for creativity and so many new ideas that I get for new things. Sometimes I have so many concepts in my head that I make myself crazy wondering how I can make them all happen? The amazing thing is, God doesn’t require us to make things happen. He just wants us to love Him and others and to live for him. He is reminding me many times over and over to sit still, be with him, know him and don’t rush the moments with another new idea. Just be in the moment with him. Accept where you’re at now and be content with it. Sometimes new ideas are for another day, week, month or year. Not for now.
Did u ever think God, the Creator actually stops creating? I believe He does. I believe He sits with us, and wants to just be with us as we are. Not as we could be one day, but as we are now, right here in this moment...just as He first created us to be...no more, no less. I’m realizing as I write, that this creative side of me does have to do with not being content. It’s feeling like life isn’t good enough the way it is. It’s always longing for more, more beauty, more color, more things, more makeup, more designs. What is it about human nature that keeps us from being content? It’s certainly the longing for Eden. It’s knowing God has so much more. It’s the desire we have to attain things. It’s being better. It’s being prettier. It’s being smarter. It’s being richer. If only we could accept ourselves flaws and all and stop to rest, to not create, to just be. Wouldn’t that be a life of freedom?
So well said! So good because I've often wondered what it is about change that creates so much fear and anxiety in people. Certainly, it's fear... of the unknown, of being forced out of comfort, of feeling the loss of control. I love what you said about God only desiring us to know Him and love Him. Relationship! I feel like we make it all too complicated. Our desire to achieve, have more, be more, get more are all geared toward fulfilling our false selves - unfortunately, the only self many of us ever really know. Our true selves - our souls - are where we are connected to God... where we are "one with Christ." It is only in our true self that we can find contentment, joy, peace in spite of our circumstances. Our true self cannot be disappointed, discouraged or offended... because it exists on a plane that is not affected by this natural world which is filled with broken people, misdirected expectations and unfathomable acts of hurt and hatred. Sorry for the long comment... I really loved the post. Very thought-provoking.
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