Here we are at the start of another year. For some it represents hope of a new start. For others its another reminder of the uncertainty and inevitable changes all around. There are so many individuals who are frustrated, anxious, fearful. Can you relate? Are you looking for someone, anyone to say, “It’s going to be ok, that you are ok?” The unrest that comes from change or how we deal with change is often unsettling and scary. Our fears are understandable. Since we often don’t know what the journey will look like and don’t know the outcome, we don’t know if we prefer our current situation or what the change will bring. “The World” offers us no guarantees that the change will be to our advantage, leaving us leery and often wanting to avoid change all together. Sometimes, we even get mad at the change or at the people that represent the change. We may lash out, criticize, withdraw, feel stuck.
It doesn’t just happen at the start of a new year. Weather we want it or not, everyday, all day long, change happens all around us, outside of us, within us. Change happens whether we actively participate or adamantly dig our hills in and do nothing. Time still changes; our bodies continue to function and age, our minds continue to ponder the world around us, our own purpose, and where we belong. People around us make decisions, we make decisions, and all of those decisions whether passive or active change our course, our experience and our world.
The good news is that our futures are not unknown. God has a plan for each of us. He sees and knows things about us that we can’t even begin to comprehend or handle before He is ready for us to face it. In Luke 12:7 it says that “even the hairs on ‘our’ heads have been counted. Therefore, stop being afraid. ‘We’re more valuable ‘to Him’ than many sparrows.” Take a moment and look at your left thumb. The combination of lines and swirls that make your thumbprint belongs to you alone. No one on this planet of 7.6 billion people shares the same print. No one has the same combination of life experiences, physical features, and talents that you possess. God crafted a unique blueprint for you and your unique, intentional purpose. In His infinite love and care for us all, He gave us free will and the opportunity to participate in our life by allowing us choices and decisions as He unfolds His plans. We can choose to claim that purpose at any given time, seek it out, embrace it, relish in it. We don’t have to wait until its the start of a new year or when your boss finally does or neighbor says, or the world looks, or ………. (you fill in blank).
We are absolutely not alone on this journey called life. The scary fears around change are NOT unknown to the Author of the universe. He is for us and not against us. What if He did not have a plan for us, but would have left it ALL up to us? What if we were the authors of our own creation and destiny and we were left completely up to our own volition? Do me a favor and stop for a minute and think about that possibility. I personally shudder at the thought. I can’t imagine the overwhelming fear and anxiety that would grip us all at our core if we truly had to face life completely left to our own accord. Think about the many things about our life that God predetermined before we were ever born – amazingly important things like, our family of origin, our gender, ethnic makeup, cultural, family history, socioeconomic class (at birth), physical appearance, or gifts and wiring.
God has His reasons for forming us as He did. He has a reason for placing us in the time and place He chose. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, esv). He also knew the joys and sorrows we would experience from all of the decisions He left up to us to make, the challenges, temptations, and fears we would face, before they ever happen. We are not alone or left to ourselves. We have a Creator who made each of us with a plan and for a purpose. Some things He lovingly decided for us. Others things He allows us to choose, ponder, experience, learn and grow from like the amazingly good Father He is.
Maybe you are struggling over important life decisions: your relationships, the climate of your household, your job, your spouse, your children, who you are, or your health. Perhaps an unhealthy habit or relationship has become the focal point in your life, and the imbalance it has created in your life has caused turmoil in other less tended areas. Perhaps you are burdened with overwhelming shameful feelings, or anger and resentment. Or maybe you feel called to live with more purpose, less busy, or less complacent. Perhaps His Spirit is encouraging you to forgive the person who hurt you, or He wants you to get out from under the weight of trying to please others and follow their “will” rather than His. You have a choice in the midst of change to be who God designed you to be and follow the plan He has for you.
We may not have the opportunity to see the direct outcome of our choices or live out the story we envisioned, but God provides a path for us and the story He wrote for each of us is infinitely better then anything we could ever imagine for ourselves. He offers us a way to walk in freedom, free from our expectations of how we think our story should unfold, even when our circumstances don’t make sense to us. He invites us to relinquish control in the midst of the unknown, the unanswered questions, the bewildering circumstances, and the sense of being overwhelmed. To surrender to His plan and His purpose. He calls us to embrace who He created us to be. Instead of focusing on outside changes and unknowns let us focus on becoming who we were uniquely created to be. Amazing individuals, precious and loved children of God Almighty.
It is in this place of surrender we can finally stop fighting change and the unknown and embrace His perfect plan. It is in this place we find joy and acceptance. It is in this place that we find peace and we deepen our intimacy with Him. It is in this place we find that we are never alone and we don’t have to fear change. Our challenge is to relinquish what hinders us from seeking and following His perfect plan, wherever it may take us. Yes, even if it means giving up our disillusionment that we can write a better story. We have many choices and opportunities within the story He wrote us. He gives us the freedom to make choices, decide so many things and to exercise our free will. Let us not get sidetracked by focusing on God decisions and let us focus on decisions we are capable of making.
Isn’t the abundance of unknown change and the choices we face the cause of the gripping fear we experience in the first place? I am so incredibly grateful that we didn’t happen by chance and are not left up to our devices to figure it ALL out on our own. To know that He has a plan and is on this journey with us. Let’s not get sidetracked by our fear of change, follow someone else’s will for us, or get caught up in our feelings about the things that we had no opportunity to make a decision about. If that is where you are stuck, then consider changing your perspective. When change comes, look for the path that has God’s footprints and willingly follow Him wherever He leads you. His perfect and unique plan for you was designed just for you.
– Tundi Jones