Encouraging Change

Our electorate is in the market for candidates who cast themselves as agents of “change.” I am sure humans still generally hate change. I believe our expressed desire for something different is actually a yearning for something better. I have been observing change close at hand in recent days: good and important change, the kind for which one is thankful.

My oldest son came home from college for a few days bringing joy and a bass guitar to our house. His hair is shorter than I remembered it. He no longer towers over his littlest brother who isn’t allowed to be taller than his mother until next year. He wore a shirt I know he got in high school which somehow looks foreign to me. He carries himself with an easy kindness and confidence which makes me proud. Change is everywhere.

At a youth group gathering Sunday evening we enjoyed the hospitality of the Maynard family. Their warmth and welcome are constants in our universe. That evening a number of young people who are now in college dropped in. We are always happy to see them. They are not, however, the same kids who left us after High School graduation. We recognize their personalities of course, but they are in the midst of serious change. Their living spaces are new, classes demand attention, and some challenges feel almost unbearable. These are very important moments in the lives of these young people, and we basked in the opportunity to spend a sublimely beautiful evening in October with them. Today they are back at it. We hope they remember they aren’t all on their own as they travel through the changing landscape which dominates their lives.

My middle son has one foot in High School and one in college as a “dual-enrollment” student. We were proud to watch the High School band march in De Witt last Saturday and win their division. They were amazing - even with a tuba going down in the middle of what is not intended to be a contact sport. My son is growing in confidence each day, but his world is changing and sometimes he doesn’t quite know what to make of it all. I am amazed by the grace with which he moves back and forth between the world of secondary and post-secondary education. He and Bilbo Baggins have much in common as there is more to both of them than either has even begun to suspect. Change has given us glimpses of the new and hopeful in our son’s life.

My youngest son has walked through the door of High School to his great relief and joy. Middle School was a lot like purgatory for him - even though we don’t technically believe in purgatory. He grows each day: physically, emotionally and spiritually. He has an irrepressible enthusiasm and a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of good will for the people he encounters each day. Change has come as a welcome friend and he is thriving. Nothing makes a parent happier.

Our discourse as a nation is being defined by seeing change as a fundamental shift in direction. I have been experiencing change as the natural and positive outworking of growth and grace. This is the kind of change which makes life deeper and richer than it was yesterday. It is the kind of “better” which makes the future more welcoming each time we experience it.