Important Note: For the past 90 weeks, I have been writing blogs for Guideposts Magazine’s website OurPrayer. It has been a great honor and pleasure to write these blogs. As of August 1, 2011, Guideposts will discontinue all of the OurPrayer blogs. Many people have told me that they follow my blogs every week, so I have decided to continue to write the blogs and will have them posted on my website. Starting in August, you can read my blogs by going to www.joycarol.com and clicking on “Read Joy’s Weekly Blog.”

This will be a change for me, and I will miss writing for Guideposts. I confess I don’t always like change, but it is is a normal part of life which occurs regularly in our relationships, our home life, our work, our financial situations, our physical and spiritual lives. However, when our lives seem to change too quickly in this fast-moving world, it can seem frightening. We may feel a tad uneasy or out of control. We may not realize that even as life is speeding by, we can choose how we will respond and that it is possible to experience God’s gifts of love, peace, and calm.

At times when we are going through change, we may understand just how vulnerable we are or how precious life really is. We may see that we have become sloppy with our living, that we haven’t been careful about what we’ve chosen to do with our precious days on earth. Sometimes we don’t give thought to what we hold as sacred. We need to remember that life is very brief. I admit it’s rather sobering to think that there isn’t endless time left for us to live. Perhaps that thought alone will make us want to use our remaining time in a meaningful way. If we approach life as if we only had one day left to live, then the sense of impermanence might heighten our feelings of preciousness, passion, and gratitude.

Although change can be frightening, it can also provide new opportunities for growth. We may want to recall positive things that occurred in the past when we’ve faced change or times of transition. Likely we developed skills that can help us go through major transitions in a healthy way. Perhaps we can affirm that we are constantly changing, we are growing, we are filled with potential. Our job is to gather wisdom from our experiences and then live a transformed life.

Yes, we face change every day of our lives, and we are always in transition. And we have no idea what life will be like in the future. But we can make good choices about changes we want to make in order to live our lives fully and meaningfully. Even when we feel busy or rushed, it’s important that we stop, listen, reflect, and pray so that we will become aware of God’s loving presence in our lives.

Beloved Creator, thank you for creating a world filled with surprises and change. When we are in transition on our journey or we face changes, help us not to be afraid but rather to learn from our experiences. May we realize that you are always there for us, even during major changes in our lives. Amen.

Joy Carol
www.joycarol.com