We’ve all lived through sudden changes, and quickly we see how everything has an opportunity to be better, or worse It depends on the circumstances. When life changes, we need to learn how to adapt, even if we do not want to adopt the new position we find ourselves facing.
When you look over your shoulder, you see how life has a way of creeping up with major changes only seen through lenses of the past. The future that scares us, and the present leaves us quaking and quivering… What’s next?
I suspect the other thing we find out is what our true personality is like. Yours. Theirs. Mine. Suddenly, hidden anomalies pop to the surface. Feelings burst like a balloon. Everyone wonders where “that” came from.
We each come to life with our own assorted luggage items. You are who you are because you arrived at this day with all the luggage foisted on you and that which you’ve scrounged along the way. You are your own worst enemy and possibly, friend.
The least successful folks in life, from my perspective, are those who go with the flow. Blindly accepting the new normal of change. “There’s nothing we can do. It is what it is…”
My view is probably more like Dylan Thomas who popularized a theme from his poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night” [Source] What theme?
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
In Other Words, Stand Up And Be Counted!
I’m thinking of the Alamo. That proverbial line drawn in the sand when the odds are stacked against you. “If you are for, step across, else stay where you are.”
This season, we’ve watched many hunker down and hide when we should be standing up to shine! This is our finest hour! We were made for times like this! Don’t go with the flow! Fight! When you’re tired, take a breather, then fight! Fight! Be an encourager as you keep pressing forward! Never whine, nor complain. Be the change that needs to happen.
Isolate? Not on your life! Stay safe, but don’t hide from the night! We have a light that shines in the darkness, and though not comprehended, it draws others to us. Put it under a bushel? Hide it? Snuff it out? No! Thousand times no!
When Life Changes We Should Go With The Flow, Right? Maybe… Life is like photography. Keep developing from the Negatives and Create Positives! Click To TweetDeath. Isolation. Fear. Negativity. Disease. Conform. Award those who go with the flow, and punish those who refuse? Is this how we should live? Not on your life!
What Did Jesus Say?
Jesus is warning his followers that a time will come when they will face much persecution. For His name’s sake, as well as how they respond to life, and what they know about Jesus.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves:
be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
(Matthew 10:16 KJV)
When the wolves are about, what should we do? Hide? Cower in the corner? No! We are supposed to go into their midst and be wise and harmless. In other words, our witness tells others we are not going with the flow! We are here to make ourselves visible despite the world’s wisdom.
I challenge you to read the entire chapter of Matthew 10. Yet, notice the beginning, his disciples were not facing the world without a support system!
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples,
he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
(Matthew 10:1 KJV)
My Life Keeps Moving Forward
I am not willing to slow down. Hide. Or run from the problems. I rage against the night as one who has more to accomplish than there is time to live. True. I want to retreat to a valley with no other visible roof lines or human presence. That’s my introverted mind. But until I’m called home, there is something in me that says:
“How can you move forward if you never take that first step.
Once momentum is achieved, how can you ever stop and be satisfied?”
I’m not looking for rocking chair mentalities. Rather, who is willing to step up, step out, move forward? What say ye? Do we go with the flow? I think not.
