In the last several years, fellow saint and sinner Tammy Perlmutter has, like many of us, witnessed a whole lot of change, much of it just downright sad, hard and disenchanting.  Tammy posted this wonderful little entry on change in yesterday’s “five minute Friday” challenge.  (Fellow blogger Lisa-Jo Baker began “Five Minute Friday” as a way to encourage aspiring writers and tired moms to put their thoughts down.  If you’ve ever wanted to write but have been too shy or suffer from writer’s block, this is a great way to try your hand at the craft.)  Here is Tammy on change, and you can find more of Tammy’s reflections at her blog, Raggle Taggle:

The iPod cable in my car is broken, so I’m resorting to CDs. They’re round and flat and shiny and have a hole in the middle. Sometimes there’s a pretty picture on the side that’s not shiny. That’s for you millennials out there.

I am usually in danger of wrecking the car when I switch music and since I don’t have that many in my car I’ve just kept one CD in the player for months. Yes, months. Ohio by *Over the Rhine.

There’s one song that has been sitting me with me for so long. It plays in my head as I fall asleep at night. It’s there again, waiting for me, when I wake up. And when I’m riding the elevator. It’s always there lately.

The title? “Changes Come.”

It’s a melancholy little number, with a swear in it, which feels good when I listen to it. I’m right there with Karin when she’s singing it.

The line about the firstborn son, it’s my favorite one. The fact that it is also the one with the swear in it is neither here nor there.

She sings about the world being too messed up for any firstborn son.

She’s referring to having  a baby, of course, but it got me thinking. Jesus was a firstborn son. As Christians we all have the rights and privileges of firstborn sons.

Yet changes come. Hardship comes. Circumstances that feel like death come.We’re not exempt, as firstborn as all of us are.

And the changes I’ve seen in the last two years make me want to use that swear in the song. (As if I really haven’t.)

A friend told me once that all change is first perceived as loss. It’s played out so true in my own life. My world isn’t the same as it was a year ago. My heartisn’t the same. It’s a little sadder, a bit darker, somewhat softer, slightly stronger.

But Sunday’s coming.

These same changes that brought down calamity on our heads also brought some blessing our way. So would I trade in the changes? I’d be tempted. I love shortcuts. Escape routes. Secret tunnels. Trap doors that get you out of something quick but into something else just as fast.

But I hope to change all that.

I’m going to stick around and see what changes come.

Somedays I think that maybe
This ol’ world’s too *mess*ed up
For any firstborn son

There is all this untouched beauty
The light, the dark both running through me
Is there still redemption for anyone?

Jesus come
Turn the world around
Lay my burden down
Turn this world around
Bring the whole thing down

*Fun fact: The tagline of my blog, Invest in the Mess, is a line from Over the Rhine’s song “Long Lost Brother.”

So tell me your troubles
Let your pain rain down
I know my job, I’ve been around
I invest in the mess
I’m a low cost dumping ground