Passage

May you be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country! (Deuteronomy 28:3)

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Adjusting to Change — Lots of It!


Have you ever found yourself out of your comfort zone? Or perhaps you were in that zone, but just the thought of an inch outside of it made you cringe, get all clammy and migraine-prone?

I get you.

So here were the initial and major changes I had to contend with:
1. From single life to married life
2. From city life to provincial life
3. From working in an office to working at home
4. From being with family and friends all throughout the week to having no family and friends (except my loving and patient husband, of course)

I had two choices:
1. Resist the changes, remain in rigidity…and be miserable; in one word, MISERY; or
2. Accept the changes, adjust accordingly…and be happy; in one word, HAPPINESS

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Anyone in her right mind would choose happiness. Guess what? I found misery quite quickly. OK, so I wasn’t in my right mind then. I was in my left (sorry, couldn’t resist!).

This reminds me of a Bible passage in Deuteronomy 30:19 (NRSV) that says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.” No-brainer. But for some weird reason, we humans tend to choose the harder route…learning the hard way in the process. At least we learn.

For the record, I was glad to be married. That was a change I readily welcomed. For the rest, I struggled.

I resisted, I accepted, I resisted, I accepted, I resisted, I accepted, I resisted…I.GOT.TIRED. I learned. I accepted, I adjusted, I became happy. Whew!

A guy named Jimmy Dean said, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” But Jesus, my Savior, said it best: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8, NRSV).

I wanted to follow the wind of the Spirit. So I had to make choices deliberately. It took time. I had to learn to adjust every day. Every moment even. And each step of acceptance and adjustment brought me deeper into a place called peace.


2 comments:

  1. I can relate to you and Praise God, im not alone with my present situation living in a province (Rodriguez, Rizal) and was able to read your article/blog to learn and embrace the changes in my life. I can vividly recall when me, my husband and our daughter transferred to our new house in Rodriguez, Rizal last November 2011 and i was happy because of the thought of having a new house. But when i learned that i was pregnant to our second child, i was devastated because of the distance and my pregnancy having a hard time to travel from city to province plus the heavy traffic that I can experince everyday. I had to wake up early in the morning to avoid the heavy traffic and be early in the office-that was not the problem before when we lived in Marikina, i didnt have to wake up early.And now, that we have our new baby, i have to wake up earlier and prepare our meal and would be home by pass 6 in the evening and had to cook again for our dinner and had to read books for my eldest and play with her and had to carry my youngest. On weekends, we would stay at home instead of going to malls. We would eat at home(to save money) and would do gardening and household chores. My officemates would tell me that "i am living in a mountain where there were limited malls and latest gadgets". I got hurt for a while but realized to thank God for His blessings for giving me a new house in a mountain:).But I'm still happy because it's been my dream to live far away from the busy city. God's grace i'm right now learning to accept and accept and accept delightfully the changes in my life. Thank you Lord for the patience and grace of my husband and for my adorable daughters. Thanks mich, miss you a lot!

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    1. Hi Miles! Thanks for reading and for also sharing about your life. Who would've thought that the Lord would allow our lives to be as they are now? Yes, God is so good...all the changes are still such blessings! God bless you and your family! ;)

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