Kicked out of the box

*Thanks to my friend Debra Dickey-Liang for serving as today’s guest contributor!*

Have you ever gotten kicked out of your ‘box’?

Sure you have! You know, the one in which you have planned and worked very diligently to make the pieces of your life fit just so, created precisely the right amount of wriggle room, and stocked it with just the appropriate assortment of ‘cushion’ accommodations so that you think that you are fully prepared for any and all contingencies that probably won’t, but just might, pop up!? Actually, I’m quite sure that most of you were in that box shouting, ‘Let. Me. Out!!’ — but not me! ‘Some are born to change, some achieve change, and others have change thrust upon them’! (slight paraphrasing)

That’s me, at the end –kicking and screaming all the way! At least at first. As I have never been a terribly adventurous soul, naturally, the most effective avenue for dislodging me personally from my familiar, and more or less comfortable ‘box’, was for something to haul off and kick me out. It has been stated that women, more especially mothers, continuously live their lives in a process of change. For us, adapting is a necessary commodity, a reality really. For without that resource, managing and coping with all that the world of work, family, society, and the universe in general throws at us would be almost more than we would be able to handle! Reflecting on my own existence, it seems that my odyssey has been one very long series of changes. An existence that seems always to be moving, transforming, re-acclimating and adapting. One of my daughter’s favorite commiserations when faced with change and challenges is: “I don’t want to be a grown-up!”

I hear ya! Yet circumstances have a way of propelling us in directions that require us to grow in our comprehension, mature in our attitudes, stretch our minds to new ideas and competencies, travel unexplored paths, learn to do more with less, and most particularly, to decide how to go on when the road before us seems overwhelming. To put all that in context, we must be able to visualize the future so that the present becomes part of the big picture, rather than the entire canvas, then make the best of it, despite our fears and apprehensions. Sometimes the changes I experience are gentle nudges that prod me to make simple adjustments to my accustomed routine; frequently those changes are more complicated shoves that require some fancy footwork and extraordinarily creative adaptations on my part! But most fearsome have been those changes that have knocked my feet out from under me and slammed me to the ground.

However, at each level, the bottom line requirement remained the same — for me to discover the labyrinthine degrees of competencies accorded me from the Giver of All Gifts, along with the multitudinous (good word, huh!) score of capabilities measured out for me to put into place and apply to the adaptation process. Gradually or suddenly, those changes were ushered in, patterns were modified, emotions were altered, and situations were refashioned, in the end, becoming so much a part of me that I hardly remember what I was like before the change took place. Stubborn changes that I was forced to make arising from occurrences that were beyond my control – yet with each hurdle and at each juncture, demanding that I GET OUT OF THAT BOX!

When Jesus commanded His disciples, “Go ye…” could that be what He had in mind??!!?