May 2026

A TV ad caught our attention and caused us to think about how and where real change is made in our world and what circumstances seem to seldom change, like good relationships.

Commercials can be both compelling and seductive. Who wouldn't want to go to a Universal Theme park to "Change Everything" - or - with just the snap of a finger, do a magical makeover? There are actual ads* that experts say changed the world.

Change everything. Surely most people have thought, from time to time, it would be nice to change __________. Fill in the blank.

For some of us, the loss of a spouse or child, a house fire, or some other traumatic event, changed everything. On the other hand, an unexpected 'epiphany' or a simple truth, changed everything.

Some time ago, a friend, Carmen, told me that when she was a small child and alone at home while her mother unexpectedly had to step out of the house, the house caught fire and destroyed everything they owned. She remembered her mother's warning, "Don't play with matches." Carmen carried guilt many years, almost destroying her life, too. Then in late adulthood she found out the simple truth. The fire was caused by an electrical malfunction. That knowledge changed everything.

The Universal Orlando Resort commercial tries to sell you everything that you want or need to change. The ad claims, "whoever you are or wherever you 're from. It changes you, it changes them, it changes everything."

Just imagine!

Just imagine how prayer can change everything, too.

A Trappist monk, priest, and writer Thomas Merton, lived at Abbey of Gethsemane in Louisville, KY. One ordinary day in 1958 when he left the Abbey to run an errand downtown, he experienced a mystical revelation and a simple truth about himself. That changed everything.

Later Merton wrote this in his spiritual journal: “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.”  

While I have never been to the Universal Orlando Resort, I would like to have changed everything about some things in my life.

Many of us trust the omnipotence and infinite love of God to change what we cannot change. Sometimes an unexpected epiphany, a view of the Grand Canyon, a lighted steeple in the moonlight, or a simple truth can change everything.

--Jan

*29 minute YouTube video, "Five Ads that Changed the World"

Photo: © rawpixel, 123RF Free Images

That changes everything … or maybe not.

I flew to Chicago earlier this month, to visit my friends, Tim and Priscilla. We all went to college together, back in the early 1970s, at what is now Milligan University. After college, Tim and I both attended Princeton Seminary, although our studies there overlapped by only one year. Then we each went our separate ways.

We saw each other occasionally for a decade or so. Later, we exchanged Christmas cards and a few emails. In recent years, there have been some Zoom calls and visits by FaceTime. But I hadn’t actually seen them, in person, since sometime in the early 1990s.

When we were together this month, it felt like nothing had changed. Oh, yes, we all looked (a little bit) older. We each had a lot of stories to tell about experiences down through the years. Some of those experiences were wonderful! Others were painful. But I felt comfortable talking about them all.

I have moved many times in my lifetime. I have lived in eight states and one foreign country. There was one five-year period in which I resided at eight different addresses. This has not made it easy to keep up with old friends. Frankly, it has often been my fault for failing to maintain contact.

But I am so thankful that I have kept in touch with Tim and Priscilla. It was so comfortable being with them this month! It was just like old times. I didn’t have to impress them. I didn’t need to hide any secrets. I could be my true self, without any worry.

Such gracious hospitality echoes the grace of God. As Jerome Kodell, OSB, puts it, “God has my best interests at heart, knows what is best for me in every moment, and loves me. God lets me be myself, with no masks. That, and only that, is true freedom.”*

--by Bill

*Life Lessons from the Monastery (The Word Among Us Press, 2010), p. 112.

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