What is changing in your world lately? Your health? Job? Relationships? Finances? Neighborhood? Given the recent shifts in the presidential campaign, combined with the in-progress professional changes in my life, I’ve been pondering change. It is one thing that is constant in our lives. Things never stay the same.
Note about the image. These are the trophies I won in 1997 for delivering a speech about change. The backdrop is a painting by a student called “Take Wings Against a Sea of Trouble.” If you look carefully, you can see a winged creature in the upper right-hand corner.
My Mysterious Mind
Unlike many people, I enjoy Algebra. The rules are set and clear, the only “unknowns” are the variables for which algebraic processes are solving. Each equation has variables, the pieces whose values were unknown, but knowable. Also included in the equations are the known entities, or constants. Thus, algebraic equations have variables and constants.
Life is not like algebraic equations. Yes, there are some constants always present, like death and taxes. And there are unknowns, part of life’s journey yet unclear. These variables will often make sense in time or by gathering additional information. Then there’s change, an unknown that is constant.
Life always includes change. Change is a constant variable. This unsettling reality makes “solving” life’s equations more complicated than using algebra. How do you solve an equation where a constant is unknown and changing?
I have long thought I liked change. What I have recently realized is that I like variety but I, like many people, do not like change. I like having various responsibilities at work, but I want to have the same job. I prefer to eat at familiar restaurants, but I order something different every time.
I started writing on Substack because my professional world was changing, and I wanted to create something I could control. My first post in May 2022 was Turn the Page. Now, two years later, I am turning another page. Since I completed my doctorate in the year 2000, I have been faculty at Missouri State University. In a few weeks I will be faculty at Evangel University. Change is coming again because change is a constant that is always shifting things around. I confess to being a little freaked out about these shifts.
Message of Mystery Acres
The forest is always changing while continuing to remain the same. Every visit brings something new within a predictable pattern of seasons. In preparing for this issue on change I went looking for a speech I knew I had written in 1997. That speech, like the forest, is from a different version of me, one from years ago. That speech, like the forest, also reveals a constancy within me. I’ve included it in the Living in Mystery section of this issue.
Like the forest, that speech is the same me as today. Like the forest, that speech is from a different version of the same me. I have always been changing while continuing to remain the same. That’s the message of Mystery Acres – there’s a core of sameness connecting us throughout all the changes in our lives.
Ancient Mystery’s Voice
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (See Hebrews 13, verse 8)
Death and taxes aren’t the only constants in our lives. The writer of Hebrews assured us that Jesus is a constant, not a variable. No matter the shifting in our lives, He is an unchanging foundation.
Placing Jesus into the equation of our lives provides stability during change.
Jesus + Me = Stability.
It’s a weird form of algebra, really. Adding Jesus as a constant into our lives creates a stable outcome. This doesn’t make logical sense. A constant plus a variable does not equal a constant. But when the constant being included is Jesus, the product is stable.
Living in Mystery
In searching through some files of old writing, I found the draft of a speech on change I gave in a Toastmasters competition in 1997. Here, in my voice of today, are the words I wrote 27 years ago, in a time before I had a doctorate:
“When you feel the storm approaching;
When the winds of change intensify;
Do not run for cover!
It is time to fly up high!
Change is like the wind. Unpredictable. Sometimes mild. Sometimes intense. The winds of change can push us forward, and even upward, or blow us over.
Change is everywhere. People. Jobs. Finances. Relationships.
I, like you, am not immune to change, any more than I can walk outside and keep myself from experiencing the wind when it is there. Last year I suffered the end of a job which I held for five years, my only mistake: the lack of a doctoral degree.
Is change good or bad?
Is the wind helpful or destructive?
Wind can destroy homes, knock over trees … or turn windmills and generate useful electricity.
So also, with change. Change can be friend or foe; it depends on how we react to it.
Some react to change by withdrawing from others and from life. Retreating into a private world of depression or despair is like running for cover in a dark cave when a storm approaches.
Many react to change by engaging in self-destructive behaviors, such as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or overeating. These behaviors may bring temporary comfort but do so at the expense of health. These methods of coping with change are like spitting into the wind. It feels good at first, but the eventual consequences can be quite unpleasant.
When change comes, and it will, some people react with resistance. Refusing to accept the movement and new direction of their lives, they lock their heels into place and refuse to budge. Ever watch a kite try to fly against the wind? And watched it crash? Resisting change is like flying against the wind. Exhausting. Not productive.
Each day of our lives gives way to a new day and leaves yesterday behind. Not wanting what today brings, wanting instead the “good old days” some people cling to the past, regretful that things are changing. Clinging to the past is like trying to fly a kite on yesterday’s wind.
Also, it seems to be human nature to complain and grumble about change. “This isn’t what I wanted. I don’t like this. I can’t handle this.” How productive is it to curse the wind? Does it listen and stop blowing?
And when the changes are extremely intense and unpredictable, we often get scared. Like huddling in a corner, we listen to the howling winds of change all around us and become paralyzed with fear.
Rather than letting change hurt us, I propose we use it for our growth.
Instead of isolating oneself, change is an opportunity to connect with others and with God. The upheaval of my life in the past year moved me to reach out to others in deeper and more frequent interactions. My life is richer now because of it.
Rather than relieving stress through destructive tension relief methods, change can be an excuse to invest in healthier behavior. For example, I began taking several expensive vitamins during the year after losing my job when my finances might not justify doing so.
Seeing change all around us is a good time to practice acceptance, not resistance. There is so much that we cannot and never will control. Accept and know the winds of change are often moved by hands which are not our own.
The past is gone, the future is in front of us. Change is a reminder to fly towards new horizons. For me, I am flying towards the new horizon of a doctoral degree, a program I will begin this summer.
Choose to be grateful for the change, rather than grumble. Walk into each day and say ‘thank you’ for it. Some days the winds are calm or balmy, other days the winds are wild. Learn to cherish and appreciate each one. Realize that blessings often come in the odd-looking packages of change.
See change not as a source of fear but as a call to adventure. The adrenaline is pumping, but it’s the thrill of the unknown, not the dread of it, that can energize us.
I love how the golden eagle responds to an approaching storm, and I use it as a model for dealing with the storms of change. An eagle, because of its keen vision and lofty home, can see a storm coming long before it actually arrives. Most animals run for shelter. But not the mighty eagle. Perching on the edge of its home it awaits the intense winds which accompany the storm. When these winds arrive, the eagle begins to fly, using the winds to push its flight to higher and higher elevations. The eagle sees the storm as an opportunity to fly higher than it normally can.
My wish for myself and also for you is that we would respond as the eagle does to the intense winds of change, using the energy of change to lift us to higher levels of flying than we have flown before.
When you feel the storm approaching;
When the winds of change intensify;
Do not run for cover;
It is time to fly up high!”
Postlude: In 1997 I performed an expanded version of this speech in a Toastmasters competition, winning my way to the Division level, where I placed second. The first-place speaker competed at the international level. In the summer of 1997, I started a doctoral program, graduating in May 2000. In August of that same year, I began the position from which I am now retiring. With a few edits, this speech could be about the current season of change, one which I used to energize my writing on Substack, and that has launched me into another position. Change is funny like that. Always changing, but somehow, mysteriously, always the same.
Connecting with Mystery
Dear Lord of All Mystery, I confess to being anxious about the changes in my world. Help me to respond to these changes by connecting with others and with You. Rather than resisting or grumbling about change, strengthen my acceptance and gratitude. Letting go of the past, give me courage to fly higher because of the winds of change in my life. Thank You for being the one, true constant on which I can stabilize. Amen.
Notes from Dr. Mac
If you want to do your own investigation of any of the scriptures I use, I suggest you go to Bible Gateway. This free online version of the Bible allows a search of words or phrases. Various translations can be selected from the old-time language of the King James version to the more modernized language of The Message. I suggest you ponder the various translations of Hebrews 13:8. Though communicated differently, the message is the same.
You can find previous posts of my writing at ARCHIVE. You can find organized compilations in the My Books section. You can also find Mystery’s Voice on Spotify.
Please share your thoughts by leaving or sending a message (see below), emailing me at Dear Dr. Mac, or through the Substack App. I love to hear from you!
