The challenge of change

This year is my first year away from living at my parents' house. I just turned 18 before I left and entered a whole new world about 1000 miles away from home. One of the things I was really looking for when I arrived was a new church home. Luckily I had been a part of GYC in high school and had met the new associate pastor at FCC Orange. It has been very interesting for me to experience a new church and new church people. Not always doing things the same as my old church, it was pretty hard for me to get used to, especially the Lord's prayer.

Going back for Christmas was even more of a challenge than the first switch that I made. I walked in to my Sunday school and was greeted as usual, but as the conversation heated up, the differences in the Disciple churches stuck out so much in my mind. Switching back the Lord's Prayer that I had always known even seemed a little difficult, the other one had become more familiar to me.

When my dad came for Thanksgiving we stayed in a hotel that was only about three minutes from my dorm room. I packed what I thought I needed for the weekend and went to the hotel. As the weekend went on, I kept realizing things that I had forgotten most everything. Changing location of where I was, sleeping and trying to gather all of my belongings in just a short time, was not easy for me. The change was hard.

College has already taught me a lot. I have learned how to be flexible in most of the things I do. Trying to find a quiet study space and sharing a room with someone I had never met has not been easy. Change in general is difficult for me, but to change even small things that have been with me my entire life like church can be earthshaking. The church is a huge part of my life, but as I get older, move more, and find a job and a home, I need to become more adaptive and open to new ideas and ways of doing things. Just like trying to say the old Lord's Prayer again, the change that we go through will eventually feel natural. We just have to be open and ready for it.

Charisse Knorr is in her first year as a HELM Leadership Fellow and is a member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Maryville, Missouri.