Begin Again

My best friend Paige has been haranguing me for years to read East of Eden, John Steinbeck's 1952 novel often described as a modern retelling of the book of Genesis. So, I purchased the book a year ago. In typical form, I am just now reading it, and along side, I am also rereading the book of Genesis. There is no question which book I will finish first-East of Eden is about 600 pages long, a fact which was the main contributor to me putting off this read for a year. This is a change for me, to pick up a really fat book and agree to read it at this time of year. And frankly, I'm not all that excited about it. But I know it will be good for me.

Change is all around us right now, being as it is the start of a new school year. My oldest daughter enters high school this year, and my youngest will enter 5th grade. One will be a peon in a sea of near-adults, and the other will rule a school full of tiny children. It is also the start of a new Church year (of course, the liturgical calendar starts the new year with Advent, but for practical purposes, all churches tend to launch their new year in line with the rest of the world, which is driven by cultural timing, which is in turn driven by the school year).

"In the beginning" will be an appropriate prepositional phrase for this fall. It is a time to start new, and to make new changes. Without change, whether it be in school, in church, or in our own personal habits, we do not grow. We do not improve. Cells without change are stagnant. They die.

Many people are afraid of change. In fact, if we are honest, we are all afraid of change. Change is scary. We don't know if the changes we make are the "right" changes. But the worst thing we can do in this fear is to let it rule us. I think many of us over a certain age could take a lesson from my daughters, who are so very open to the new changes that are going to happen in their lives. I know I can.

I respect people who are simply not open to change if they are honest about it, and if they don't make it all about their anger or throwing stones because others do school, or church, or home life, differently. I cannot respect those who don't like a certain way of doing things and instead of finding their own path of doing, they simply stick around to cause chaos.

So, let us begin again. Choose your goals for this fall. Mine include actually finishing a long, fat book that Paige guilted me into reading (not the first, by the way), launching new or improved groups at Nativity to help people grow in their relationship with Christ, and being a more available wife, mom, daughter and friend. Oh, and it is also my goal to be quiet about the way other people make their own changes, unless it is to praise them.

What are your goals? And are they about actually being a better person, as Christ would have us be, or are they about causing chaos in the lives of others who embrace change, or different change from you?

This is not a rhetorical question.