A change would do you good.

I'm an educator, and one of the things we often say/hear in education when a new model or method or technology rolls around is:
"That's just change for change's sake".

It's meant as a defensive statement.  What it really means is"
"I'm going to passive aggressively ignore that until something else comes along, and then I'll ignore that and keep going the way I have been for years".

I doubt it's unique to education, we don't like change in general.  I'm fascinated by it.  It stresses me out a bit, and it's rarely comfortable, but I actually love change sometimes.  It's exciting, it's a bit frightening, it's an adventure.  I've studied change and change management quite a bit.  It's a broad topic, and a tremendously deep one.

So here's my question... what's wrong with change for change's sake.  That statement implies that change is bad unless it has some extrinsic value, while denying the intrinsic value of change.  To see that we have to look at what the opposite of change is.  The opposite of change is routine, it's sameness.  Now, sameness, routine, tradition, these aren't bad.  They have lots of value.  They let us be efficient.  They let us be comfortable.  They let us think about things besides the mechanics of what we're doing, and dig in deeper to other things.  But they aren't all good either.  Comfort is probably one of the biggest temptations we face, without ever really seeing it.  So much of our lives is centred around comfort it's scary.  People spend a lot of time and money on comfort.  Comfort is leading us to destruction of the planet.  Comfort allows us to ignore someone in need.  Comfort prevents us from taking risks.  Comfort focusses our vision on why not instead of why.

As Catholics change is a tricky subject.  We have both the support and the weight of 2000 years of tradition and theology with us.  Very many people find very great comfort in the way we do things, and have for a long time.  It's why even small changes to something like the Mass can cause so much disturbance.  At the same time, some folks feel stagnant.  They don't have an emotional connection to some traditions, and so they feel the desire for change.  Of course this leads to great tension.  To change means to mourn the loss of a way or pattern, in a process that is psychologically very much like mourning a death.  To not change means, for some, to slowly die of stagnation, or worse for others, to become grumpy in our faith because we can't deal with the small changes that happen around us.

So what do we do?  The leaders of the Church tackle the issue on an institutional level, but how do we manage this on a personal level?  This is where I propose change for change's sake on a pretty regular basis.  I suffer spiritual stagnation on a pretty periodic basis.  Guaranteed over the course of a year I'll slip in to going through the motions a couple of times, and need to be refreshed.  But how does a Catholic change?  I mean, if I'm feeling stagnant, I can't just change the Mass, or the teachings of the Church, or who I am.  What can we change.  This is where the beauty of the Universal Church lies.  There is so much we can explore within the realm of the faith that no one could ever cover it all in a single lifetime.  To become complacent in one form of prayer or action is a call to find another that challenges us, that we are uncomfortable with.  When I am so comfortable as a musician in the Church that I don't even think about it, that the spiritual side stagnates, then I need to find another ministry or direction that makes me uncomfortable.  When my prayer life is routine enough that I feel bored, I need to find a new way to pray that is uncomfortable for me.  Personally I can pray very easily outside, and I draw joy from creation, but I struggle with connecting to some of the traditional prayers of the Church.  So when I find myself paddling a river or climbing a mountain and I don't even notice the call to pray and recognize God, it's time for me to pull out my rosary, or spend some time in adoration, or read something by a saint.  It's time to change my approach to God.

So my suggestion is go find something in the way you approach God to change, just for the sake of change.  For no other reason than it will challenge you, make you uncomfortable, and get you to take a step outside whatever part of you is getting too routine.  Find something about the Church that scares you or makes you grumpy and jump right in to it.  To quote John Ortberg, if you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.