Time comes when every shakable is shaken:
Every fallible dropped, I fell too to the bottom
Rubbles my neighbors. I prayed for change
And here I am, far from where I used to be
I prayed for better and here I am, so far
From all I used to know. Maybe to the world
Change is glamour; flashing cameras, posing
Prancing, crowds applauding, admiring.
In my world, change is different. Change is
Pain and change is private. Change has tears
And gnawing fears. Change is soil and I –
Seed that dies. Death is not delicious, yet in
Dying, in the deep and dark and lone, change
Works miracles of new life. In that grave and
Ugly place, I need no crowd or cameras. I need
God to shed the old and embrace novelty.  I need
No grammar or drama. I need hope in God
To thrive again: others are shifting shadows.

Food For Thought: It is only in movies that change is so glamorous we are inspired to clamor for it. Only in movies do you see people do anything and get away without penalties. In real life, change is deep. Change carries seeds of uncertainties. Change inspires fears and doubts. Change has consequences that do not end as movies wrap up. The end of change may call for celebration but the process of change is often far from that. The journey of change can be lonesome and painful and the end dependent on the way we choose to travel that route, on what we take with us and leave behind, on what we do with the things we take along. People here and there may influence the processes of our change but the end depends on us. We determine where change leaves us; by our choices and the outcomes that accompany them. The greatest results may cost us the deepest pains but the end always justifies the means because God controls our changes. God controls all the things we can’t so we can focus on the ones we can. And if we manage them right, we reap the right rewards. If we make a mess, we fail and will return to that process again and again until we have learned to overcome.

Scripture: “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3: 24.

Prayer: Dear Lord, through every event of life, may my hope remain anchored in You and You alone, amen.