New Year’s Resolutions

Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions? Are they easy or difficult?

I gave up years ago. I decided if I really wanted to change something I would start then and not wait for the “magical day.” It’s made January much more pleasant but I’m not sure I have made the changes I really wanted to either.

It got me to wondering about why we so often fail to make those good and healthy changes. Then I started thinking about the word transition, I thought at first that it was interchangeable, but it just didn’t seem to sit the same way.  So I turned to Pastor Rebecca’s library to see if there was some help. Guess what? There was a book about managing transitions. I quickly discovered the “change” and “transition” were very different and yet related.

It seems in order to change you have to manage the transition if you want success.  It is taking time to grieve the loss of what was and work at letting go. Then, sitting in the middle ground where you are not quite to the new but you have let go of the old. Finally, making the new beginning, finding new purpose or reward in the change that you have made.

So often we take something, for example, getting healthy and jump right into the exercise or new food regime. For some this may work but for others maybe we need to look at a transition period. The need to take time to say good bye to some of those comfort foods, and couch potato times. Life will look different, we hope better but the fear that it may not turn out as good as we hoped can work at eroding the ability to really change. Then we can move into the change and begin claiming the good things that come from the change until we have found we are on a new and better path. Lasting change may be the result.

As a church we are looking at what changes may help us to better minister in our community, renew the congregation, and give us new life. We can talk about all kinds of ideas but we also need to share with one another what a transition may be like. What do we fear losing? How will a change affect me, our community, etc.? In the midst of dreaming let us also take time to be sensitive about the letting go and endings that may happen.

Please continue to pray for the church and all the possible ways we can change. What are the good things we can look forward to, what are the things we may need to grieve letting go. God is good and leads us on a path that is ever changing. “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.” (Psalm 143:10)

Blessings, Pastor Trina