Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Caryn Josephson.
“The only constant is change” I said to my manager last week when we heard of another long time employee who was leaving the company for another position. I consider myself to be pretty resilient in the face of change, but at times the amount and pace of change feels overwhelming.
Sometimes change is something we initiate – starting a new job, beginning retirement, forming a new relationship, moving to a new location, taking a class to learn something new. There can be mixed emotions – the excitement of a positive change but some trepidation as well. Will I get along with my new co-workers or make new friends? Will the class be too difficult?
Other times we have no control over the change. The pandemic has certainly taught us that! We have had to learn how to adapt and adjust to new realities. How can we maintain relationships when we cannot safely gather? What does work and school and travel look like? What degree of risk is each of us willing to accept? Are there cracks in our relationships due to differing opinions of how to address all of this?
At Prince of Peace we’ve also experienced so much change over the past few years with the pandemic – from the loss of long time members, to different ways of gathering, to the loss of our major daycare tenant, to the ending of Pastor Betsy’s time of service with us. It’s understandable to grieve for the way things used to be and so tempting to give in to despair. And yet, as it says in Hebrews 13:8,
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
We’ve found ways to connect through YouTube and Zoom meetings when we couldn’t meet in person. We’ve upgraded our technology with recorded and Live Stream services that allow us to spread God’s love and comfort farther than exclusively in-person experiences allow. We have exciting new opportunities to use our facility to help serve others and we rejoice that Pastor Betsy will be able to use her gifts to care for others through her Chaplaincy residency. And through it all we are finding ways to share the unchanging Love that God has for all people.
Some change we have no control over, but we can trust that God is always there with us to provide strength, guidance and comfort.
Serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen