Fall is the season of change. The leaves change from their summer green to red, brown, yellow, purple, and every shade in between. The leaves have already begun dropping from the trees as the trees are getting ready for fall and then winter. It’s an awesome transformation, especially in Maryland as we have so many varieties of hardwoods and the weather can vary so wildly from one season to another. My yard has been filling with dried leaves of various shades of brown and yellow. We have a lot of tulip poplars (which aren’t technically “poplars” at all. With the dry weather of July and August, the leaves are falling early.
I think and feel differently about change from when I was young. When I was young and just beginning my ministry I was all about “change.” Change seemed like a great thing to me. I had a hard time understanding how “old people” were so resistant to change. I understood in some ways how “all change” wasn’t technically a good thing but I was really frustrated with how “any change” seemed to be such a challenge for the older people who generally filled our churches and were in the seats of power and decision making.
Ah, the march of time. Now I’m in the “old people” camp. Now, I understand how “change for the sake of change” isn’t necessarily a good thing and in fact can be counterproductive and meritless. Now I have to work harder at embracing change. Now I have to be convinced that change is a good thing. I learned a long time ago when it came to cars, all things mechanical and technological, “if it isn’t broken don’t mess with it.” These days places like Microsoft, YouTube, Zoom, and all places of technology drive me beyond crazy with changing how their programs work and moving things around. Often these days just about the time I learn where things are in programs like Word, Excel, Outlook, and other programs I use and depend on every day, some whippersnapper wants to shake things up and I have to spend inordinate and unacceptable amounts of time relearning programs I already knew. My genealogy program that I loved and was simple and easy to use disappeared completely and the new one I had to buy and use went from version 7 (it took me a long time to figure it out) to version 8 which is universally acknowledged as a mistake, to now version 9 which I just don’t want to learn. Change is not always good.
Whether it’s good or not, easy to embrace or not, life requires that just like trees in the woods, we have no choice but to prepare for changing seasons, changing circumstances, and changing conditions. The last several years have seen massive and disruptive seasons of change for us in every aspect of life. I do my best to resist change for the sake of change, but to be open to the necessity of change. Embracing whatever it takes to be open to change is required. Change is a part of life. Come to think of it, my hairline is a perfect metaphor for changing seasons. I’ve dropped most of my “leaves” and the hairline is in a perpetual state of winter. It is what it is! Such is life. Change can be good, or it can be bad, but it’s going to be. Get used to it!