When Change Threatens to Zap Your Joy

Change can zap your joy, until you remember what each future moment holds: more Christ. 

Change can zap your joy, until you remember what each future moment holds: more of Christ. Share on X

Lately, I’ve been feeling sad more often. Plainly and simply sad.

There’s no big catastrophe to bring it on. Oh sure, there are always a few hiccups in my days, but nothing has gone horribly wrong in the recent past.

It’s just that my daughter recently turned 18, and now I have 3 adult children and one youth. 

That’s good news, you may say. Rejoice! 

It may well be good news — I guess it is — but in some ways, deep down, it makes me sad.

Because now my kiddos won’t need me as much.

And now there won’t be as many games played around the table or picnics in out-of-the-way parks.

And now we have to pursue guardianship for my daughter and be looking toward the end of her high school education and the beginning of … well … some things new and different. Things I don’t want to face. 

Change is good …. sometimes. Maybe most of the time. 

But sometimes it just doesn’t feel good. 

When that happens, I let myself be sad, for a while. After all, God created us with feelings, and it’s okay to express them.

But it’s not okay to camp in them or let them dictate our actions and reactions.

It's okay to express our sad feelings, but not to camp in them or let them dictate our actions & reactions. Share on X

Beauty to Come

So after a good sulking, I give myself a pep talk based on an important truth. I remind myself that there’s beauty in the moments to come just as there has been beauty in the present and past ones.

There's beauty in the moments to come just as there has been beauty in the present and past ones. Share on X

I know the beauty exists because Jesus occupies all moments, and He radiates grace, in and for all time.

We needn’t disdain or fear the future. After all, we’re never asked to enter it alone.

Rather Jesus invites us to walk with Him into it. And then He leads us and meets us on the way.

But even more beautiful is that He is there waiting when that future moment becomes the present and then the past.

Jesus occupies our past, walks in our present and waits ahead in our future. He’s omnipresent. He was and is and is to come. 

What a glorious picture of being met and kept! What glorious moments in which to live!

Every. Last. One. Of. Them. 

The ones we lived. The ones we’re living. And the ones we’ll soon be in.

Jesus occupies our past, walks in our present, waits ahead in our future: a glorious picture of being met & kept! Share on X

Glory of Change

For a Christian, change, even hard change, has great worth, because more of Jesus awaits. And in each new moment lie new opportunities for growth and learning. 

Too often I look at change as leaving behind a time or position or person I value. But maybe I need to look at it differently … maybe change is really about moving toward something of greater value.

Maybe change is not about leaving something of value, but about moving toward something of greater value instead. Share on X

Maybe change is instrumental in making me into a closer resemblance of my Savior. 

Maybe change is guiding me a bit closer to that true treasure found in Jesus Christ. And that’s something to embrace! 

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

“The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8