We all love to take pictures of our children.

Pictures are snapshots in time of what our children looked like at a certain age or an image marking a significant event like a birth, the day they took their first steps, hitting their first homerun, a graduation, or their wedding day.

Pictures are static or in other words, moments frozen in time.

In today’s world we take pictures in rapid fire succession with our digital cameras or phones.

We upload them to Facebook or Twitter to be shared.

Depending on the photographer and the subject of the pictures itself (like those of us with grandchildren), we give reason to social media sites to make business decisions to purchase new servers given the quantity of images uploaded!

I regret not having as many pictures as we would have liked of our three beautiful daughters when they were younger.

Doing so was expensive.

Thirty years ago we had to buy film.

If you have to ask the question, “what is film?” I am referring something which is on display at the Smithsonian!

Once we took the pictures, typically twenty-four exposures to a roll, we had to get them developed.

Developing the pictures also cost money.

When it came to paying for diapers or formula versus taking lots of pictures and developing them, the practical and necessary usually won out.

We actually had to take the camera rolls somewhere or send them vial the mail to be processed (and hopefully not lose them) to get the mug shot of little Johnny or little Suzy to show off!

Again, it was another impediment to obtaining a finished product.

The pictures of yesteryear were typically filed in an album or a shoebox.

Today’s digital images are stored in folders, not the paper variety.

The word CHANGE reminds me of those Kodak moments or the images stored on our digital devices or hard drives.

The image, no pun intended, is one where things stay the same.

Nothing is altered, as in the status quo.

We see things as they are and that’s it, period!

When we think of the word CHANGE it is synonymous with a four letter word.

We do not like it.

Let’s leave well enough alone is typically our prevailing thought.

Life simply does not work like this.

Life is ongoing.

Things CHANGE, constantly!

Whether we like it or not.

We can choose to pout about it or embrace it.

CHANGE, paradoxically, is a constant.

We either go with the flow or we get stuck in a rut.

Sometimes CHANGE is thrust upon us, as in a job loss or the loss of a loved one.

At other times, CHANGE is gradual as would be the case of an experience stretched over a period of time.

I like to think of my life or any given day of my life as a continually rolling movie, capturing milliseconds of time which can be reviewed.

The projector is running, 24/7, day in and day out, from Day 1 to My Final Day.

I listened to a talk earlier today which spoke of viewing CHANGE as an invitation to explore new frontiers.

If you have a spare twenty minutes to invest, you can listen to the talk here. 

It made a lot of sense.

If you prefer referring to something written, clink on this link as a frame of reference.

We typically are geared up to avoid CHANGE for all of the reasons mentioned above and many more.

Have you ever thought of viewing CHANGE as something which could be welcomed or explored?

Picture the image birthed by the word CHANGE as embracing a new frontier as mentioned above.

Dictionary.com defines the word, frontier, as follows:

“The land or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country’s settled or inhabited regions.”

When we avoid CHANGE and cling to what we know, it is in many ways like the land or territory in our minds forming the furthest extent of our inhabited regions.

In other words, it is a boundary not to be crossed.

When we swing the needle in the direction of embracing CHANGE it casts the image of a river flowing through open spaces.

Although it might look like still shot, it is not.  No two days or moments are the same.  It is constantly changing.

The river changes, carrying with it sediment and an always altered contour which is dependent on the forces of nature affecting it at any moment in time.

So it is with our lives.

In the early days of our country, the West was considered the new frontier.

It represented an uncertain land which stood in contrast to the known and inhabited worlds.

For those who made their way westward, CHANGE had to be embraced.

The same can be said of space exploration. Talk about going outside of the comfort zone.

To do so was and is considered other worldly!

CHANGE happens – constantly.

There is only person I know who does not change nor has need of doing so as:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (NLT)

He is The Constant One.

With respect to our lives, the question to be asked is this.

Will you look CHANGE in the eye and then look the other way in defiance to it?

OR

Will you view CHANGE through the lens of being invited to explore a new frontier and an opportunity to discover lands previously unknown?

 Which question we choose to answer will determine what our lives will look like on a constantly changing basis – choose wisely!