Change

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Change is inevitable; but improvement is optional (Anonymous).

You will often hear it said that people don’t like change, and on the face of it, it is easy to find examples to prove the point.

Whose skin doesn’t crawl when they see a banner scrawled across a beloved product: New and Improved? We grumble and grouse, “But I liked it the way it was!”

We complain, but in reality most people appreciate change when it represents a genuine improvement over what is or what was.

When facing the heat of summer or winter’s icy blast, I am glad we have cars and trucks with modern luxuries-cum-necessities such as air conditioning and anti-lock brakes. I like it when I go to the doctor with an ache or pain and they have a magic bullet that can heal something that might have been incurable a decade or two ago.

I like the fact that we no longer have rivers that catch fire, and that while we still have too much trash littering our highways and byways, that the amount of litter on the roadside seems to be less despite the population of our nation having doubled since my birth.

I like going into a restaurant and not having to ask for a seat in the non-smoking section. In fact, I am sure laws that make smoking more and more inconvenient are doing far more to reduce smoke-related illnesses than the Surgeon General warning labels in all their iterations over the past few decades.

Those are all good things. Those are changes most can appreciate, and if one change is falling short, one can continue to improve the quality of life for Self and for Neighbor by asking the simple question: What more can I do?

The issue of change, and specifically how one responds to change, has less to do with the nature of change, as such, but with how we perceive it. If one feels a change is being imposed, our instinct is to rebel or to fight it, but do we need to?

One may assert that change is painful and that change imposed by someone else is unjust or unfair, but I would have to ask whether it is change that is causing the pain, or if the problem really isn’t one’s resistance to what’s happening that’s causing the irritation.

Sometimes we need help to make the changes necessary for an improved life. The psalmist says, “Incline my heart to your decrees and not to unjust gain. Turn my eyes from watching what is worthless; give me life in your ways” (Psalm 119:36-37).

He asks God to “incline his heart” because (I suspect) his nature is DIS-inclined to do what is right. His inclination is towards “unjust gain.” That’s what he really wants. His heart is ego-driven; it is all “me-me-me.” To improve his connection with God, he acknowledges his need for help. “Incline my heart” is an imperative – a “make me!”

We don’t have to fight change. We can embrace it. Why should it matter whether change is being directed or ordered from a friend, colleague, spouse, child, parent, superior, official, or a complete stranger? If the path I am on or the choices I am making are taking me down the road that leads to rack or ruin, it is a kindness when someone points it out.

A man I know has a Japanese character tattooed on the back of his head. I asked him what it is and he said, “It is a Kanji symbol for ‘Change’ because I need to change my life, and the only way I’m going to do that is if I keep it forever on the back of my mind.”

I don’t know if I want to change enough to get anything printed on the back of my head, but I appreciate the sentiment. Change doesn’t have to be painful or awkward, nor does it have to be imposed. On the contrary, it is something we can seek.

By looking for ways to change, we can eliminate the heartache of imposition. We can choose to become the people God wants us to be: inclined to do good wherever we are, and no matter what. That would be a good thing for us here in this, our world. After all, what more can we do?

Peace!