What is worse? The fear of change? Or, the fear of things not being the same? Aren't these really the same? Maybe at the surface they are. But, when you dig into the differences, I see these as similar, but very different.
We have all heard the famous quote from Heraclitus, "The only thing that is constant is change." I heard it a lot when there was a shake up in management at my office. Why then do some fear change? I believe this to be simple - change is an immediate thing.
All of us fear change at some point in our life. Maybe it is a fear of moving across the country, your pending wedding vows or even a change of jobs. Despite looking forward the challenges of these changes, the fear is real and unsettling. Typically though these fears are short lived. We soon find comfort in our change. There is that newlywed period we find a bliss with everything we went through to get to where we are. Then, after a time, we find the small things routine, mundane and at times annoying. Complacency has crept back into our lives. We see things so much that we no longer fear those things we did way back when. Suddenly, many of us find a need for change again. That which was once feared is now craved. Sure, we know that once change occurs again, we will run head on into our fears once again. Maybe, just maybe, this is our need for an adrenaline rush.
But what about our pining for the days gone by? The days where things maybe weren't simple, but they just flowed like the spring melt off from the mountains. These days weren't so much completely controlled by anything we did, but we could rely on everything working the way they should. Even if there were the slightest change, we could rely that nothing much would really change. All of those you relied on were there to support and aide where needed to make your day go by. Be it a death in the family, coworkers moving on or friends moving across the country and losing touch with them, you just don't have things like they were. Now you fear that things will never be the same again (which you know they never will be, but you still fear it) and you are now reluctant to see or express excitement over the future.
So what is it that drives these fears in us? Why do we have a hard time with change at any level? And why do we fear the change that is beyond our control? One is short term and one takes months or years to recognize and build up before we acknowledge it.
God comforts us in Isaiah 41:10 and assures us that he is with us. Again, in Matthew 6:25-34 we are instructed by Christ to not worry. If you are a person of faith, then what causes our fear of change? I'm just curious. As for me, I don't fear change I just can't say I always enjoy it. I do indeed miss the days of old but I'm not inclined to allow them to change the way I go about my day. I work hard at rolling with the punches life throws at me no matter how battered and bruised I might end up.
What about you? What causes you to fear change? What do you struggle with the most? Is it the fear of change, or the fear of things not being the same?
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