Change is part of our daily lives

Published 4:08 pm Monday, July 25, 2011

Things never remain the same; they always change. Change is a part of life! Our bodies change! Even our conversations change!

We live in changing times. Things aren’t like they used to be. We know we need a change, but we put it off because we often suffer from one of two syndromes: “the wait until tomorrow” syndrome or “the remember when” syndrome.

Those of us who suffer from the “wait until tomorrow” syndrome always find ourselves saying, “I’ll invest in my financial future tomorrow, I’ll start my diet tomorrow, I’ll exercise tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll start on the project.” It’s always tomorrow! Unfortunately, tomorrow never seems to come, and frustration sets in like a pulled muscle. Now change becomes even more difficult. Days, months, and even years pass and we’ve done nothing. The “wait until tomorrow” syndrome steals our futures and makes us settle for the what ifs. That bondage needs to be broken.

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If the bondage isn’t broken, we will progress into the “remember when” syndrome.  We hear these conversations at class reunions all of the time.

How do we break these two bondages? The answer is found in the story of the butterfly. Not only is the butterfly changing, it is also transforming. A butterfly experiences four different stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. It takes almost a week for the egg to hatch. But while it waits, the larva develops inside of the egg and nourishes on the yolk of the egg until it has enough strength to hatch onto a leaf.  At this point, the catepillar (the larva) emerges.

As it changes and goes through metamorphosis, it outgrows its skin and enters into the molting process. During this time, the caterpillar molts its skin around five to six times until it becomes  an adult caterpillar. Once grown, it crawls away from the plant on which it was feeding and finds a safe haven to pupate.

Transformation is the answer to us moving past the “wait until tomorrow” and “remember when” syndromes.

We no longer need to seek change, but we seek transformation! Change is only a temporary solution, but transformation is life-changing.