When I was still working in the IT industry, we would have a new slogan or motto every year. I remember one year, in the 1980’s, the motto was: “Partners In Change”. It was pretty appropriate, since we were busy reorganizing almost constantly, trying to remain the strong, dominant player we had been for the previous three decades. Of course, as regular employees, we felt ourselves to be mere peons within the huge, 500,000-employee, worldwide corporation. My own version of that year’s motto was: “Partners In Change…Small Change.” (Small change, get it?…like working for nickels and dimes) It used to get an appropriately small chuckle from my co-workers.

Fast forward twenty years, and I was working for the US Army, as an employee in the Transformation Office, one of the highest priority initiatives and leading edge unit in the modern Army. Its meaning is far more than a motto, it represents a massive, Army-wide effort to address the complex, dangerous situations occurring today in global warfare.

I firmly believe that the best things in life are truly transformational… a deep kind of change that gradually (sometimes suddenly) brings one to another level or direction. Two very common examples are: marriage and parenthood. Each of these experiences are lifelong, involve ups and downs, and at times, require much patience. Each is powered by love, passion, and a deep sense of devotion and responsibility. If one is fortunate enough to experience them, the net result can be truly fulfilling and give much meaning to one’s life.

While I can’t place karate-do on quite the same plane as marriage and parenthood, at its best, it can be pretty transformational. The conscientious practice of the art, over a long period of time, can render great, positive changes in one’s conditioning, strength, and health. It can improve one’s emotional strength and mental clarity. It can raise one’s historical/cultural awareness and knowledge of body dynamics. It can even help with one’s spiritual walk.

Now, while the Lord is eternal and never changing, the mortal world we live in is not. I’m not an advocate of change just for the sake of change. However, all around us; in the business world, in global relations, in our marriages, in our children, in our bodies, change is constant and unavoidable…. we need to have the discernment, and make the effort, to make the appropriate responses to always effect change for the better. So maybe that old business motto was a pretty apt one after all…if we have the right attitude, if we do it right, maybe we really can be “partners in change”… in the dojo, in our daily lives, and in our daily walk with Him.