When A Storm of Change Is On the Horizon

An imaginative meditation to consider the mystery of change on the landscape of our lives.

The inevitability of change is on my mind this week. On some level, we know in our bones that change is always around the corner. Sometimes we have the foresight to prepare for the changes we know are coming. Other times, while we live with the shadow of change creeping behind us, we push it away and live in denial. And of course, change also catches us completely and utterly off guard. What a mystery–how change is such a force that we endure at every turn.

Always, always God is with us when change hurls its way through our lives. But how he is with us shifts and evolves because our needs shift and evolve with every change we endure. I wrote a parable this week that invites us to imagine ourselves in a storm of change and consider its mystery. My prayer is that in whatever change you are facing today, you are aware of God with you in the storm and in the mystery.

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A Parable of the Storm of Change

Settle into these seven minutes with God today with box breathing: 1) inhaling for a count of four, 2) holding for a count of four, 3) exhaling for a count of four, and 4) holding for another count of four. As many times as you need.

Then meditate on this parable of change. Allow yourself to be on this landscape and in this mystery. Open your heart and soul to how God desires to be with you in this story.

One day, we looked out on the wide horizon, and there it was: a tiny cloud of dust. Barely a speck to our eyes. Change was galloping in our direction, but we told ourselves, “We have time.”

And days and weeks and months went by with barely a difference. We went on with our lives, and the dust of Change out in the far-off distance seemed to stay the same. Always there. No need to worry. “We have time.”

But yesterday, we awoke to rumbling under our heads. A vibration we felt even under our fingernails. The horizon was upon us. A swirling dust storm choking us. Change in our village. In our homes. In our bodies. In our very souls.

What was in the far-off distance two days ago, blew straight through us. There was no warning. Except for what we had denied would inevitably come. Could we have been ready if we hadn’t been so far-sighted?

Today, the dust has hardly settled. We have been violently pushed off the foundations that grounded our lives. Change stampeded over and through, around and under every single one of us. Its gritty sand has found every crack in our facades. Only the mystery of Change remains. When will it come again?

Reflection Prompts

Consider these prompts for reflection:

• Where is Change on the landscape of your life today?

• How does this change feel for you? Your mind? Your body? Your home? Your community?

• How does God’s presence feel different than before?

Close With Prayer…

O Unchanging God, Prepare me for what’s ahead. Help me heed the dust in the distance and ready myself for the change that is coming. As change stampedes through my life when I least expect it, hold tight to me. Shield me. Cover me. And give me the grit to stand in the aftermath and embrace its mystery. Amen.

Audio Voiceover

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