I Struggle With Change
Recently the processor who had been my right-hand person for the last five years left the company (and the mortgage industry) to spend more time with her family and be a mom.
I was so so happy for her!
We had developed a great working relationship over those five years. She was incredibly good at what she did. And she made me look good too!
She often anticipated what I was going to ask before I even asked it. She knew how I liked things done. She knew how I communicated. She knew me and I knew her.
So when she left, I knew I was going to miss her.
And I did.
And I still do.
For a while, I had different processors filling in and it wasn’t good. We got through it, but it reminded me just how valuable my previous processor had been.
Then last month our region hired a new, seasoned processor.
He’s been in the business for more than 15 years and was assigned to work with me going forward.
And you know what?
It’s been great!
He’s experienced. He knows what he’s doing. He picks things up quickly. Of course, there are still things he has to learn about our company-where to find things, how our systems work, and also all of my little quirks.
He doesn’t know me yet. He doesn’t know exactly how I like to receive information, all of my idiosyncrasies. But he’s learning… And I’m learning how to work with him.
It’s a change, it’s life, and that’s the part I’ve had to remind myself of because I have always struggled with change.
Yet a Real Christian Businessman knows that change is inevitable. It’s not the change itself that reveals our character, but how we respond to it.
I’ve handled change much worse in the past.
I’ve been more vocal.
I’ve complained.
I’ve resisted.
I’ve wanted things to go back to the way they were.
But as I’m getting more seasoned now, and I’m learning that I don’t have to react to every change.
I can pause.
I can adjust.
I can look for the good instead of immediately focusing on what I’ve lost.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11 (ESV)
I don’t think that means every change will automatically turn out the way we want. But I do believe it means we can trust God with the future.
So when something changes at work that I don’t like, I have a choice.
I can fight it, I can complain about it, I can constantly compare it to the way things used to be.
Or I can ask: “How might God use this change for something good?“
And that’s what I’m trying to do with this one.
And so far, it’s been better than good.
Maybe that’s because my new processor is really that good. Or maybe it’s because I’ve approached the change differently.
Either way, I’m learning something.
Sometimes the change we fight the hardest may be the change that ends up being exactly what we needed.