Secure Change Is Not a Contradiction. (!)

I read something today that seemed, at first glance, to be a mistake:

"People feel emotionally bad because they have a negative view of the future. They expect everything to continue the way it is. People feel happy because they have a positive view of the future. They expect everything to continue the way it is."

Surely the writer missed a 'not'--happiness consists of not expecting everything to continue the way it is.

But then I remembered Suzanne. She's one of the most beautiful people I know. She's old, really old, for someone like me to spend time with. But I miss her. I miss what I continually learned from her. She's the epitome of both ceaseless activity and peace. I never thought (before I met her) that the two could co-exist. But I walk into Suzanne's home and I know they can. The scent of family and ambition, of contentment and hunger, of wisdom and of searching, fills every room.

I think, if I were to ask her why she is happy and at peace, Suzanne wouldn't credit her circumstances. She might wink and smile, saying:

I expect everything to continue the way it is.

Because Suzanne accepts life as it comes, not as a volcanic eruption of her plans; and people as they are, not as she would like them to be. She cherishes both responsibility and grace--her eyes will tell you this even before she speaks a word. There are no chains to her laugh, no heaviness or dishonesty. Her joy is her identity. No one, no circumstance, can take that away. If change is imminent, it's not traumatic or irreversible or bad to Suzanne. It doesn't change who she fundamentally is. Change is opportunity.

And so, I write they expect everything to continue the way it is in my new notebook. I don't find it ironic. My circumstances change. But my identity and my security and my life in Christ never will.