Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine. Robert Gallagher

Life is like underwear. Change is good.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road. Unless you fail to make the turn. Helen Keller

Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle, and best at the end. Robin Shama

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them. That only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward  in whatever way they like. Lao Tzu

Everything that exists is blessed with one universal instinct. The inherent instinct to evolve and change. The instinct to evolve is found in every seed, plant, tree, and season. It is in every one of the 3.7 trillion cells in our bodies. It is in every animal and human. It is found in every oppressed person or group that says “You will not hold us down.”

The instinct to evolve reveals the very essence of God. God is a constant Creator. A bringer of the new in every single moment that arises and passes away.

It is found in every soul. Yes the most basic instinct of the soul is to evolve. We find it in every desire of the soul to express. We find it in every desire to create. To wonder. To explore. To challenge ourselves. To truly listen. To learn. To ask questions. We see it in the deep, inner push we all feel to find out ‘the more’ in everything. The more that will inevitably change things as they currently are. It has to!

Got change? Of course! You ARE change. Remember the Aramaic meaning of the Our Father in the Lord’s Prayer:  Oh Birther! Father and Mother who is everywhere. Your One light, breath, and vibration is within all that moves and changes.”

Our souls are here to evolve, grow, and mature, ultimately into the Love that we already are. And it is through the changes of life that this occurs. Where would the growth come from if everything (and we) remained the same? If we wanted everything to stay the same, and did everything we could to keep things the same?

How we respond to change shows us what we are putting our real trust in. If we resist change, we are being shown that we actually find our security and safety in things remaining the same. Or as we may be tempted to say, “how things have always been.” When in fact nothing has always been. Everything naturally changes.

Isn’t it interesting that resistence to change only creates sorrow, as Lao Tzu (author of The Tao) wrote 2,500 years ago? We know this to be true don’t we? It doesn’t feel good to resist change. It’s frustrating and exhausting because it is a battle the ego will always lose in its attempt to control and manipulate. And it feels to me like the ego knows it.

One particular universal change that comes to mind is aging. Everything ages. It cannot be resisted, but oh how our culture worships being young, with its billion dollar industries and anti-aging products all trying to help us stay there. All the while losing out on the wisdom, growth, maturity, and even the new found skills that the changes of aging can bring. We could turn a battle that we will surely lose into a battle that we could be winners in. And one that should never be fought in the first place.

To resist change is to resist not only the very nature of life, but our own nature as well. The positives (joy, growth, maturity, new life, and new insight) all come from moving with the flow, not against it. 

Every time a tree is able to bend with the strong wind rather than resist it, we are being taught this great Truth.

To resist change is to resist life. Life’s nature and essence. To go a step further, we often lose sight of the fact that to resist life is to resist God. God not only creates life. God IS life. God is to life as wetness is to water. You cannot remove the wetness in water. If that were even possible, there would then be no water. In the same way, you cannot remove God from life, or there would be no life.

But to be open and receptive to change is to be open to and trust God. God is the flow that is naturally pushing everything forward.  And within this trust we feel relaxed and we can breathe.

On the other hand, the sorrow that Lao Tzu points out to us when we resist change, reveals that something is wrong in our response to life when we resist change. We’ve violated a fundamental principle of reality and of ourselves.

Why move with change? Why trust it? Because within the flow of change is God. God IS the flow, and the flow’s essence is Love. Love that is always pushing you, me, everything forward to explore and realize its potential. Its highest good.

And that potential, or highest good, is unknown really. What is the potential?  What could it look like? No one, not even God knows.  Life is one giant experiment to see where this all goes. It’s not written in stone somewhere. That makes life fun, interesting, and exciting!

God is an explorer. An explorer of possibilities and potential. We are co-explorers and co-creators with God in seeing what potential looks like.

But what if the change we are currently experiencing is not one of love? What if the change is toward hate or injustice? Do we just let that be? Remember two truths here:

1. Always meet hatred with Love. Always meet injustice with justice. The key question here is: Is my response to this type of change coming from Love or fear? Is it coming from a Love that is trusting the flow? Because…

2. Change is either of God, or God allows it to happen. If the change that is happening comes from ego, fear, ignorance, or hate; even there, the flow is operating and guiding human consciousness forward. The flow is using the pain of it all, to push toward a reaching of new found potential. A potential grounded in Love.

I find it exciting that we have a huge part to play in where all this change goes. I also feel a great responsibility, which itself carries potential. Responsibility calls us to bring our very best, our Highest Self, to constant change.

How is that tree able to bend with the wind? By having enough open space within it, to allow the flow of wind to pass through, and go where it wants to go. If it is too dense. If it is too full of itself  it will resist. It will be unable to bend, and will break. And gone is any possibility for new life and growth.

May we be so open to the blessed winds of change..

Pastor Tim Tengblad

timtengblad@comcast.net   I welcome your comments and questions.