Prefer Stagnation? But Why?

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"... Isaiah 43:19


*****


While in my 20's, 30's and 40's if you peeked into my windows, you'd see me:


painting rooms
embroidering
reading decorating magazines or 'we bought a farm' type books
cooking, baking
watching Hallmark movies
doing cross stitch
making crafts
rearranging furniture

Or if you followed me around town I'd take you shopping or to the city library.

But now? In my 50's? Yick. Most of those give me the eebie-jeebies and I only do them if I must.

And that's ok.

I've moved on, shed old skin and am continuing to grow and change and form into a new person as God persists in doing new things within me. 

Perhaps this explains why my core group of friends is different--along the years we split, discovered new interests and now travel upon separate veins. Occasionally we meet back up if the veins intertwine, but sometimes they never cross again.

Why do so many folks worry when they no longer enjoy the same hobbies/people/books/tasks/movies? Why does stagnation appear like The Better Way? Why is change so dreaded?

Yeah, probably fear of the unknown explains much. Of venturing from the safe ruts in which one has become accustomed, risking falling, failing, disappointment or being viewed as a klutz or a talentless dud.

Do you know why I still view my 40's as my most magical decade? I tried a ton of new, scary-to-me adventures. I stepped out of many boats (figuratively) and walked upon water, keeping my eyes upon Jesus lest I sink. Some endeavors didn't work out, but most did. Basically, I 'stepped out and found out' what God meant me to do and be--and what He didn't.

Yep, it was one exciting decade, one whose ripples still nudge me farther and farther out into the unknown. An unknown where, always, I meet God standing upon each unexplored shore waiting to show me a new adventure so that--when I reach Heaven--I'll have missed nothing He planned ahead for me to know and do and become.

*****


He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. ~Harold Wilson


When you are through changing, you are through. ~Bruce Barton



*****