Who moved my cheese?

In December of 2004, I finished my last semester at Wheaton College and came home for my final "Christmas break" before starting full-time work. I remember very clearly how I was feeling at that the time - the mixture of emotions I faced as a major life change was on the horizon. I was sad that my college experience was over, uncertain about entering the working world, disappointed that I was graduating a semester before most of my friends, and exhilarated that "real life" was on the horizon. Change was both scary and exciting.

To help process this change, I purchased and read the book Who Moved My Cheese. This book helped me process how to cope with and process the approaching transition , seeing the positive in it rather than focusing on what I felt like I was losing as I said goodbye to a phase of my life.

I have been revisiting many of these feelings and thoughts in recent weeks as I approach another major life change - leaving my full-time position at One Smooth Stone. I have worked at OSS for almost 6 years and concluding my time there will be the first in a series of changes and goodbyes as we prepare for Austria. My colleagues have become good friends and over my 6 years, I have grown up there, going from bright eyed, naive and fresh out of college to experienced in our industry, married and a least a little more mature (or so I'd like to think...)

Saying goodbye to One Smooth Stone will be hard. I have so many memories and walking away will mean I will not be making more of them. This can easily feel like a loss. But at the same time, I am overcome with excitement about what I will gain. Leaving my job means getting to Austria is that much closer and I am eager to begin our life there. I guess that is how change is - full of emotional contradictions and a rollercoaster of feelings.

What I keep going back to is my constant - God's unchanging nature. The same God who walked me through my departure from college and the last 6 years of my life will be with me through this transition and will go with us to Austria. It says in the book of James, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God does not change. Ever. If I'm the mouse and God is the cheese, I never have to worry about the cheese moving...no matter what. When I am struggling with change in the coming months, my prayer is that God's constancy will be my on-going comfort and solice - my rock to stand on.

How do you cope with change?