CHANGE

There have been some changes in our church. 

I had finally began to accept the changes and started working with the change instead of against it, when I purchased a book at a resale shop, "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. I had heard the book was a best seller but had never read it. I was looking for something to take to the beach with me to read so I thought it would be a good time to finally read it.

Oh, how I wish I had read it sooner.  It would have helped me to better adapt to the changes and perhaps embrace them instead of opposing them. The story's unique insights about change brought peace of mind for the changes I am facing how I can better handle change in the future.

It is a simple parable with profound truths about change. There are four characters, two mice and two little people. They are searching for Cheese (a metaphor for what you are looking for in life, a good job, a good relationship, a better position, even peace of mind), in a maze (where you look, the company you work for, your family, your community). Upon finding their cheese, the characters are then faced with unexpected change. They each must decide how they are going to handle the change. One of the characters tells us what he has learned through Handwritings on the Wall of the maze to help us on our on journey toward change. (I guess a bit like blogs).

The successful one reflected on his mistakes he had made in the past and used them to plan his future on how to deal with change. Some of the points I highlighted in the book for myself are:

1. The More Important Your Cheese Is To You, The More You Want to Hold On To It.

2. Things Are Changing Around Here, Maybe We Should Change and Do Things Differently.

3. Sometimes Things Change and They Are Never The Same.

4. Fear of Change, Sometimes Turns Into Anger and We Won’t Listen.

5. Why Didn’t I Get Up and Move With the Cheese Sooner?

6. If I Had Wanted To, I Probably Could Have Seen What Was Coming.

7. He Wondered Why He Always Thought That a Change Would Lead to Something Worse.

8. He Realized That When He Had Been Afraid to Change, He Had Been Holding On to the Illusion of Something That Was No Longer There.

9. He Realized the Fastest Way to Change Is to Laugh at Your Own Folly - Then You Can Let Go and Move On.

10. Admit the Biggest Inhibitor to Change Lies Within Yourself, and Nothing Gets Better Until YOU Change.



I saw myself and why I have handled the changes in our church the way that I have, in that when we have been doing something successfully for a long time, we think it will go on that way forever. We become arrogant in our success. It becomes "our" Cheese.

The book also mentioned the role of the leaders in an organization during change, in that people are understandably more afraid of what the change imposed (forced) from above might do to them. So they resist change. In other words, A change imposed is a change opposed. Leaders, let’s be more sensitive to those working with us and discuss these changes in advance to take away the uncertainty of where we are headed. I see where I have been managing because of my fear of change, instead of leading during the change.

The book also helped me better understand changes in life, in our jobs and our finances. There will always be change.

After we get past our fear, the best thing is realizing there is New Cheese out there just waiting to be found.