unfolding uncertainties

Our home is still decorated with wooden mice with pipe-cleaner tails, stockings held by golden angels over the mantel, and a St. Nicholas quilt at the bottom of the stairs. Our tree is still up (though its needles are now like porcupine quills) and our outdoor multicolored lights are on 24/7 (just because we forget to unplug them in the morning :).

Truth be told, I am eager to put away all of the decorations that early in the season felt warm and traditional, but now feel like clutter. I can't wait to get everything back to normal. But the older I get the more I realize that "back to normal" is never quite what I expect.

Some dear friends in ministry in Nicaragua recently sent me a quote that encapsulates what I'm talking about:

Here is the paradox: the very things we now wish that we could hold onto and keep safe from change were themselves originally produced by changes. And many of those changes, in their day, looked just as daunting as any in the present do. No matter how solid and comfortable and necessary the status quo feels today, it was once new, untried and uncomfortable. Change is not only the path ahead, but it is also the path behind us, the one which we traveled along to wherever we are not trying to stay.
---William Bridges, "The way of transition"

This will be a year of changes for my family, as three of my four children are graduating from their respective schools. And there is change in store for the church, too---as we just received word that a candidate for the position of senior pastor has been identified!

As a matter of fact, I can pretty much guarantee that change is in store for each and every one of us, no matter how stable our lives may appear on the outside. And along with the inevitable changes will come questions, fears, and uncertainties.

Most days, I get excited at the start of the new year, when I think about how anything can happen. But at other times, I suddenly realize that that same thought should probably have me shaking in my boots.

But that's when faith kicks in, right? It means trusting when suddenly there's no secure footing. It means praying when I feel like tearing my hair out. It means embracing the unknown because of the One I know.