When NFL quarterback Dan

Marino announced his retirement recently, he alluded to

"feeling a great sense of loss at the moment."

For most of his life, his

internal clock centered on playing football. All year

long, he was either playing football or getting ready to

play football. During the season, his entire week

centered on practicing, studying the opposition's

defense, and preparing for game day.

No longer will he step onto

the field as a player, nor will he be part of the team

experience as star quarterback. His aging body can no

longer respond to the demands of professional football.

Marino recognized it was time to quit.

At the same time, Marino is

discovering that retiring is leaving this huge void in

his life. There will be great adjustments ahead. As he

put it, "I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss

everything about it... Most of all I am going to miss

Sunday afternoons." He is struggling with that sense

of loss.

In a recent conference on

"coaching congregations through change,"

consultant George Bullard stated that when something

changes, the first emotional experience persons feel is

loss. Bullard stated that people, and congregations, were

able to adjust to change more readily when the perceived

gains from the change were greater than the perceived

losses.

Marino is still working

through his perception of losses and gains. However, his

retirement announcement brought to mind several facts

about change in general:

� We live in a changing

world. Hardly anything stays the same anymore. The owner

of a small company had a practice of recognizing people

personally after they had worked for the company a year.

The owner would go into the plant where the first-year

employee was working, give a short speech of

appreciation, and then produce a beautiful gift, the

company's logo, on a sterling-silver tie tack in a

velvet-covered box.

One day the owner was

making his presentation to a young man who had just

completed his first year. The young man opened the box,

took out the beautiful tie-tack, and said, "Man,

this is beautiful!" Then he calmly stuck it into the

lobe of his left ear." Things change, and we don't

always grasp the changes.

� Change is inevitable,

but people naturally resist change. Someone said,

"There are only two things a good church member

won't tolerate. The first is change. The other is doing

things the same old way." The reality is that we are

never going to stop change. We may chose to stop

changing, but we will not stop change. We must adapt. The

real question is: at what rate will you allow change in

your life?

� Dealing with change is

hard work. Change stretches our comfort level and affects

the security of our routine. Like Marino is finding,

there are losses to work through and adjustments to be

made. Working through significant changes takes lots of

emotional energy.

� We need to celebrate

positive changes because they are stepping stones to

personal growth. We tend to get comfortable doing the

same things we've always done. Yet the more comfortable

we become, the more complacent we become. Positive change

is necessary because it brings personal growth. Even

though we prefer status quo, change can be good. Change

is not a dirty word when it brings enrichment.

� We need to accept change

as part of life. Those who learn to adapt are the

happiest people in life. When Alexander Graham Bell

patented the telephone in 1876, no one could imagine the

results. Nor was everyone excited about the

possibilities. An American mayor went out on a limb when

he predicted, "One day there'll be one in every

city." In England, the chief engineer of the post

office, Sir William Preece, told a group of men,

"The Americans have need of the telephones, but we

do not. We have plenty of messenger boys."

They could not imagine in

their short-sightedness the impact that this change would

have upon communications and future technology.

The Rev. Dr. David L.

Chancey is pastor of McDonough Road Baptist Church in

Fayetteville.