Why Change is a Blessing in Disguise

Today my intern, Madison, shares how she adjusted to a recent change in her life.

Change. It’s so prevalent in high school. Driving, thinking about college, even dressing and acting all change in those four years. But the biggest thing that changes? Your friends.

During my freshman year of high school, I was quite the social butterfly. I interacted with people from all different “cliques”, had friends all over the school, and was the girl who couldn’t walk down the hallway without waving hi to somebody I knew.

But suddenly, my behavior began to wear me out.

Even though I was social, I felt like I wasn’t really friends with anybody.

I went from feeling like I was friends with everybody to feeling like I wasn’t close with anyone. I felt like there was no one I could talk to about the things in my life that were going on – like there was no one who cared. And when things got tough – like, really tough – I felt like there was no one I could turn to.

Until, the Lord blessed me. He blessed me with community, with friends who love me, friends who support me, friends who build me up and friends who help me grow as a person. This past summer, I spent all my time with these friends and we grew closer than ever before. Quickly, I had a group that I could call my best friends.

Now that I had changed – my friend group started to change too.

My sophomore year was approaching faster than ever, and there was a nagging fear in the back of my mind. When the school year began, I would have to face all the people who I used to call my best friends. The people I hadn’t seen all summer, and who I still loved dearly, but I was not nearly as close with.

On that first day of school, it was weird. I felt like a stranger with those friends, like I didn’t belong, or fit in with them anymore. I was now labeled “the Jesus girl”. There are worse things to be labeled as, but it still stung.

After all, I had built meaningful relationships with many of these people, and to see all of that just flushed down the drain because I had found friends who made me happy, and grown closer to the One who created me? It was painful. 

But in the midst of the chaos, Jesus was my one constant. I could turn to Him consistently and lay my mess at His feet, and every single time, He would pick up the broken shards, and show me exactly what to do with them.

In the midst of the change, God was my constant.

Sometimes the way He told me to put the pieces together didn’t make sense. I was confused, because sometimes the glass would cut me, and it would hurt me. It wouldn’t fit together perfectly at first, and there were times when I couldn’t help but ask Him if he really knew what He was doing.

In a time where I let myself drown in self-pity, telling myself that I had put myself in this place and now I had to deal with the consequences, the Lord taught me something that I will never forget.

He wants the best for me.

He wants the best for me.

Simple, right? It’s the first thing they teach you in church– that God loves His children and wants the best for them. But when you’re surrounded by the darkness that can consume us when life gets hard, it can be difficult to believe that God, the most powerful being in the universe wants the best for us. After all, if He wanted the best for us, wouldn’t He give us the best things?

Yes. He would. And He does. But when we keep our eyes focused on earthly desires and ignore the greatness that He has in store for us, we miss it.

Instead of listening to Him, we see right past the things He put in our life that really are the best for us.

God doesn’t just throw people in our life and hope that it turns out okay. If you find yourself surrounded by people who love you well, people who you feel like yourself with, people who make you smile – they are not in your life coincidentally!

People are not in your life by accident.

Here’s the truth I want to speak to you today. Adjusting to change doesn’t have to be difficult. Hebrews 13:8 tells us why: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

With Jesus, we cannot fall. We cannot waver, and we cannot shake, when He is holding us still. And Jesus doesn’t change. Our security in Him does not change.

If you’re adjusting to change in your life, remember that your Heavenly Father is constant, and He will never leave your side. Rely on truth when things feel like they’re changing too rapidly, and I promise you, He will keep your feet grounded exactly where they need to be.

To follow along with Madison, check out her Instagram and blog.