The importance of Change

The concept of personal growth and change has been on my mind again, something which I touch upon here a lot. It is an important topic to me because I've embraced that change is constant. And even though some changes in the universe can be interpreted as negatively impacting our lives I can't recall anyone actively seeking change which would make their life worse. Looking back we might be able to pick out the bad choices in our lives but at the moment we may have believed that was the best decision for ourselves. When it comes to my personal spiritual growth I have made choices which I believe would strengthen my spirituality, and my walk with my fellow man. Others who fail to understand the reasons behind my choices will interpret my change as negatively impacting my life as well as those closest to me. They say with a negative tone that "you've changed" as if shaming me would shock me back into being the old Sam.

I don't believe it is possible to go back to being the person we were before. We are constantly being affected by our environment, people, and events that it is simply impossible. And if it were possible (say by some timey,wimey revision of history) what would be the point of living a life where nothing changed? Outside of it being incredibly boring you wouldn't experience anything new and exciting, nothing would happen to you. So when others approach me with the "you've changed" look/tone I feel as if they would prefer that I stay in the same state that they're comfortable with, regardless of my personal feelings. They are uncomfortable with your changes without knowing the reasons behind the change. I've gone from 7th Day Adventist -> SBNR (I'm not in love with the label but that's the best I can find so far) and most don't ask what inspired (and continues to inspire) me to change or discuss my journey but instead focus on what was so wrong about my prior religious identity that I had to discard it. When I reply with "it simply didn't work for me" most take it as an attack on Christianity itself and by then any hopes of dialogue dissolves into a rant of how lost I am and ends with them saying they'll be praying for me (I've got a small army of people praying for me). Just because Christianity doesn't work for me DOES NOT mean it won't work for you. But if you're of the mindset that one faith is completely true then by definition it has to work for everyone, and if not the blame falls on the individual and not the religion. My beliefs changed because of the experiences, people, and events in my life. Change was bound to happen and will happen again. So how will you react to changes in your life? Will you fight or embrace them?