Why, How, -Well-

Why
Why do people change? People change because we are plastic. We are born to change. Human beings change our environments, both external and internal, to better meet our needs. We change because we are designed to change. It is how we survive. The very nature of life is motion, movement, growth, death, rebirth, and eternal change. In other words, we change because we change. The particulars of why an individual changes are particular to that individual’s story, but the general rule boils down to adaptation to a changing environment.

Why do people stay the same? People stay the same because it works. The systems of thought and action that fed us last week will most likely feed us this week. We find a tactic that minimizes our pain, and we stick to it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Why do people want to change? People want to change either because they must develop new systems to survive, or because their old systems have become maladaptive.

-Well-
That’s one way to look at it. And that perspective definitely exists within me. But, there is another. I believe in the imago dei. I believe that the Image of God in each one of us is an Icon of God. An Icon is a window on, reflection of, eternity, the place outside of time and space where God and the Saints who have gone to rest before us are. I believe that we have a window to that place inside of each of us. Saint Issac the Syrian said, “The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within you.”

I believe that people want to change because we want to be constantly becoming what we are, Icons of the divine.

How
The manners through which people change are as myriad as their reasons for changing. How many ways are there to move? Sometimes change happens entirely without intention or notice. Perhaps one day we may take note that we are much different than we were earlier in our lives, but without careful introspection there is no clear sense of how this came about.  Sometimes, change comes after a long process of concerted effort or a sudden, clear decision to be different. Change can come through interpersonal relationships, or individual determination. Change, both positive and negative, happens by living.

-Well-
That’s all well and good for an answer, but what we’re really interested in is positive change, isn’t it? How people change for the better. My answer to that is theosis. The Icon of God is like a flame, lit before time, the very energy of God. Theosis is kindling that flame within us until it burns away all corruption and disease, spiritual and physical, and we are left as the bush on Horeb, burning but not consumed. We help one another in theosis the way that one candle can light another. The way that two torches can be held together to produce a single flame.