Tag: change

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Career Community family

The Problem With Moving On

When we feel led to move onto a new adventure, it can feel exciting. The adrenaline flows as we negotiate all the tasks and plans. But there are complications. The problem with moving on is that there are always the great relationships we leave behind.

retro cab toy placed on concrete fence
Photo by Maddy Freddie on Pexels.com

My wife and I have moved on to a new adventue. Ministry is taking us to someplace new. While we will be joining some family at our destination, we will be leaving a majority of them a bit in Indiana and Ohio.

In addition, we got reaquainted with old friends when we came back, and made new ones. Our lives were richer for it.

So another problem with moving on is the trunkload of mixed emotions. We know we are heading in the right direction. Yet, we can’t help glancing one more time in the rearview mirror as we set out on a new trek.

There will be challenges and uncertainty in our new assignment. Then again, we fool ourselves into believing if we stay put, there is certainty. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that there is much more that is out of our control than any of us would like to admit.


We are under no allusions that the next place will be perfect. We will face new challenges along with familiar ones. After all, we take our old selves to the new place.

There are problems with going and problems with staying. But if I could, I’d take all my friends and loved ones along with us.

Categories
Parenting Cartoons

Should You Change it or Replace the Whole Thing?

Cartoon of a dad and a baby at a chancing table. The dad says, "We have a dirty diaper! Instead of changing it, should I just replace it?

My wife and I love fixer-upper shows. It’s impressive to see the transformation of a ramshackle, abandoned home into a mini palace. But sometimes I wonder if they should raze the house. Similarly, it takes discernment in many situations to ask ourselves, “Should you change it or replace the whole thing?”

Difference between Change and Replace

According to Wiki Diff, change means to make something different. While replacing means restoring to its former self, position, or condition. It means to place again, naturally.

Dirty Diapers

So the whole phrase, “change the diaper,” sounds strange to me. Should we replace a dirty diaper with a clean one? Can you change a dirty diaper into a clean one? I suppose you can if it is a cloth diaper. But today, we’re most likely to just replace the whole thing with a clean one.

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Attitude cartoon motivation

Why change is so hard

There are very few of us that embrace change. We know that it makes people nervous and frustrated. Article after article affirms that. Yet if we’re honest, we will admit it is inevitable. Just why is change so hard?

Spear 3974

When I sketched this idea, I observed people about twenty years older than me resisting texting. Nine years later, many of that generation has accepted texting as just another form of communication. Time marches on!

Change is a deceptively difficult thing. We have no problem finding reasons that it is so. Even when everyone agrees changes need to be made, reform is hard. People may disagree on why and how the alterations need to be made. They may even disagree how much and how sweeping a change needs to be. It just isn’t an easy thing!

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Categories
education motivation

We Are Still Learning

"I am still learning." Michelangelo

Legend has it that Michelangelo’s last words were “Ancora Imparo,” or “I am still learning.” He uttered them at the age of eighty-seven. Here was a guy that considered himself a sculpture, but painted the Sistine Chapel. He had an amazing amount of talent. Yet he knew in order to stay vital we need to realize that we are still learning.

www.brainyquote.com/s/a_1f234

Whether we like it or not, at every stage of our lives, we are still learning. Our education may be passive or active. We may learn bad habits, what we can get away with and how people disappoint us. Or we may learn new possibilities, solutions to challenges, and a new skill we didn’t know we were capable of.

Active learning involves seeking knowledge. Passive learning is merely observing and reacting to life’s challenges. It is no different than a simple organism reacting to a stimuli. While it is good we learn not to touch a hot stove, if that is all we learn, it leaves a big gap in our education.

Passive learning can make us cynical, bitter, and fearful. When things just happen to us, without active learning, we can be convinced to give up. We just react. And we don’t take any steps to fix the problem or find a new, better way.

But when we take an active interest in our studies, it opens up many possibilities. Disappointments and disasters may come, but we know there is a solution if we keep looking. It reminds me of a proverb.

“Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.”

Proverbs 10:14 (KJV)

Active learning helps us find knowledge. And even better, it leads to positive change. We may think our education is over after we graduate from school. But in reality, we continually learn new things. The question is, do we let life and the school of hard knocks educate us, or do we take an active interest in our lifelong education? After all, we are still learning!

Categories
motivation

Everything is in Flux

"All is flux, nothing stays still." Heraclitus

The world is constantly moving. Even the rocks and mountains ebb and flow. Over time, nothing stays the same. This quote from Heraclitus reminds me everything is in a state of flux.

“All is flux, nothing stays still.”

Heraclitus, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

So why do we want things the way they used to be? Is that even possible? Even our memories are in changing. Just ask a friend that was at that same event. Rarely do we all get the story straight. We notice something different a friend doesn’t and vice versa.

What we thought was perfect at one time may not have been perfect for someone else. And what is occurring today is going to be someone’s cherished memories. Yes, even in a pandemic, there are those who will have good memories of it in a few years. Does that mean we want to stay there?

Our task is not to find a moment in time we love and freeze it. Today, our task is to embrace this moment, knowing it will change and soon be a memory.

When things change, find a new melody. We can get creative and find a solution. When we do, it may work for today. But tomorrow, the melody may change. And that’s okay! We can sing a new tune tomorrow.

There was some good in the past. Today has some good in it. And my faith convinces me if tomorrow comes, there will be some good there as well. Let’s enjoy the ride for today.