The Mystery of Change

Photo Credit: Ryan Klinck

By Ryan Klinck

Something has happened. Something is different. 

Is it my shoulders? Well...they don’t feel so heavy, hmm. 
My jaw...it has been so tight lately... why, it has released, and I can move it all about!
And my chest...oh how I can breathe in so fully!
Somehow...all of me feels lighter...when I raise my feet, it is almost as if gravity will suddenly release me from its tether, and I will float away.
 
Have you ever had a moment when you realized…
“I have changed”
“I am not the same.”
“I have arrived somewhere I wasn’t.”
“I am somehow different than I was before, 
And yet...I am still me.” 

Our friend Scrooge finds himself in a different place after his encounters with the three Christmas ghosts. He arrives and embraces this change in its full glory. He no longer intimidates others with his growl, but instead welcomes others with WHOOPS and HOLLERS. His callous demeanor has been swept away into a jovial playfulness. His spirit of scarcity is replaced with a spirit of abundance.  

I often react the same way Scrooge does when I first encounter change. I feel so “high” and free from all the chains that have held me down for so long. But, then life seems to happen... 

With astonishing regularity,
I trip. 
I backslide.
I do the thing I did before I changed. 

Mr. Dickens lets us know that Scrooge’s change is permanent; he keeps his Christmas spirit well throughout the rest of his life.

Scrooge, how did you do that? How were you able to hold onto the Christmas spirit so well throughout the rest of your life? 

Long term change has not been easy for me. It has taken so much more time than it did for Scrooge. It has taken millions of small, gritty, and intentional steps just to arrive somewhere... a place I am still not quite sure where I am going. 

Oh, how I wish three ghosts would show up one night and guide me to the same kind of permanent change in my life!

The mystery of change feels so frustrating, God!

Perhaps though, that is okay. 
Perhaps I do not have to understand how change happens. 
Perhaps my role is to simply notice and appreciate change when it happens. 
That is something I can do. 

I can stop whenever I notice when change happens for myself or someone else.
I can take the time to celebrate that change.

Because I have changed already, I am changing, and I will continue to change... 
So, I can welcome the mystery of change as an old reliable friendly ghost.