Change happens

Sometimes I really don’t like getting the bus to work. Especially when it drives away just as you get to the bus stop…very annoying! Or when there are very noisy people travelling with you and you just want a bit of piece and quiet.

But sometimes I do enjoy the daily journey, watching the world go by out of the window. It’s a time when God often speaks to me, or whispers something that resonates with my heart. Something to comfort me, or to encourage me, or to assure me that things are ok.

As I sat on the bus home the other day I noticed that a whole row of trees were full of new green leaves. The last time I noticed these trees they were bare. I didn’t remember seeing any buds or the start of any leaf growth. I only noticed them once they had almost fully changed.

I realised that this has happened to me, in my life too. Sometimes it’s only after we have changed quite a bit that we look back and remember how we were. Then we can see the difference.

We often don’t notice the changes as they happen, the process is sometimes small and gradual. But after some time, the changes become more noticeable and there is an obvious difference. We are not the person we were.

Change is natural and often necessary. The trees change due to the seasons and they need to change to stay alive, to reproduce, to be fruitful. They cannot stay in one state and survive the different elements the seasons bring throughout the year.

But the trees are created to change with the seasons. They do it naturally. They do not decide to change, but they also cannot choose not to change.

As humans we have the power to choose to change. But we also have the power to choose not to change. Sometimes it can seem of little consequence, but it is a great potential that God has placed in us. It is the potential to grow, be better, to love more.

Over the last few years my life has changed a lot and as I look back I can see that I have changed too. I have left university and started full time employment, gone from being a singleton to a girlfriend to a fiancée to a wife, relocated twice, changed jobs twice and many other things along the way.

Whilst all of these things have been great, they have also been stressful, and they have all had an impact on my life. As I look back over the past few years I am happy that these things have had an impact on me, I am happy that I have changed. They have helped me to know myself, know my heart and know God’s heart for me.

I hope that I will continue to change and be open to change in the future. To learn to adapt to the different elements in my life. It’s how I’ll learn to survive and be fruitful with the seasons.