Peace in the Midst of Change

Change. Most of us don’t like it. It seems that when change rears its head, we find ourselves struggling. Over the past couple of years there was quite a bit of change at the company where I was employed. One of the big changes in my department was the outsourcing of customer service for employees with medical insurance questions. I completely understood the reason for the directive. We were paying insurance companies big bucks to do this work for us. Also because of litigation concerns, it was felt that it was in the best interest of the company to know as little as possible about the medical issues of the employees. I didn’t like the change, however. I liked to help employees, especially when it involved concerns that I could clear up in just a few minutes. Instead, I had to refer them to an 800 number. It could take an hour or longer before the issue was resolved. Often, the employee would come back to me because the customer service representative could not resolve their problem. I would then get involved with the insurance company. It was hard for me to watch the employees struggling with these issues, especially when they were often in the midst of illness. I began to bring the frustration home with me, complaining to my husband. I know I wasn’t pleasant company as I ranted and raved against the change. Eventually, I made the decision to accept the directive and do my job to the best of my ability. It wasn’t easy, but I took to heart this instruction from scripture:

Do everything without complaining or arguing. Philippians 2:14 (NLT)

I still didn’t like the new direction of the department, but the decision to obey scripture gave me a peace and joy in the midst of a difficult change.