One more blog on change. Henry Kissinger is a sought after expert on world affairs. Few people understand what happens around the world politically more than him. He said this of change: “For any student of history, change is the law of life. Any attempt to contain it guarantees an explosion down the road; the more rigid the adherence to the status quo, the more violent the ultimate outcome will be.”
On a lighter note, Ken Gaub says it like this: “If you continue to think like you always thought, you’ll always get what you always got!”
Ready or not, your life will change!
I forgot the guy’s name who said, “Never trust anyone over 30!” A couple of years later he turned 30 and we haven’t heard anything from him since. William James, famous professor of philosophy and psychology at Harvard University, once stated that after 30 we become set like plaster and never change. But that has been proven incorrect.
John D. Rockefeller had become the world’s only billionaire. But he was a miserable man who couldn’t sleep, had no one who loved him, and who needed bodyguards for his safety.
Then at age 53 he was stricken with a rare disease. He lost all his hair, and his body became thin and shrunken. He was given a year or so to live.
Faced with the reality of death, Rockefeller started thinking about eternal issues, and suddenly began to change. He gave away his money to help churches and the poor. He established the Rockefeller Foundation, which has underwritten critical health research. Today, we don’t remember him for his wealth, we remember him for his generosity.
His health improved, and contrary to the doctor’s prediction, he lived to be 98. Don’t tell me people can’t change.
We have a light over the kitchen sink that has a lens cover that keeps falling off. Anita tried plastic tak and duct tape, but it kept falling off. She finally told me it was the man’s responsibility to fix broken things, so I took a look. The starter is going out that buzzed and set off vibrations that caused the lens cover to come loose. Thinking that the change would be easy, I tried to replace the starter but couldn’t get it out. So I got my tools out and took the light assembly apart to get a better grip. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get that starter out, so I had to run to Home Depot and get a new light fixture. Of course, nothing matched from the old fixture so it took twice as long to drill new holes, etc.
Change is never easy. It always takes more work and costs more money than just keeping things the same. But today Anita has a light that doesn’t buzz or have a light cover that falls off into her dishwater. It was worth it in the end. Change was good, because if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!
Do you have to change something today? Change is good.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the mystery of the docked ham. It’s the story of a young girl who couldn’t understand why her mother cut off both ends of a ham before putting it in the oven. Her mother couldn’t explain why she did it, but insisted that since her mother had done it that way, it must be the way it was done.
Well that didn’t satisfy the daughter, so she went to Grandma to find out. But her grandmother had the same rationale. The truth had to rest with the great-grandmother. Fortunately, the originator of the tradition was still living and alert. Her reason? When she was cooking for her family, she didn’t have a pan big enough for most hams. Her remedy was to dock the ends of the ham until it was short enough to fit!
So the mystery of the abbreviated ham was solved. Will the young girl get a bigger pan or follow the tradition? What would you do?
In 1939 Germany began World War 2 by invading Poland. Hitler sent 14 armored divisions across the Polish border. The Polish army was committed to the traditions of the Cavalry and sent 12 Cavalry brigades against the German tanks. In the tradition of the great Cavalry divisions of the Prussian army, the Polish Cavalry was molded for warfare as it had been fought in the 18th and 19th century. When the divisions of German armor came streaming across the border, therefore, the Polish generals sent wave after wave of Cavalry, men mounted on horses, against the tanks. The battle lasted about three weeks. The fields of Poland were choked with the bodies of horses and brave men who had gone into battle with a strategy formed for warfare in a previous period. The rest is history.
Sometimes I think the church is using the same antiquated strategy: keep doing spiritual battle the same way with the same outdated weapons. Is it any wonder Satan seems the be winning here in America? It reminds me of the director of the US Patent office back in the 1830s who suggested the patent office be closed because everything that could be invented had already been invented. And its not the church’s fault because the church is people! Its time we all awoke to the challenge that we are the ones who need to change.
Posted by: pastordiehl Tags: Change
Two weeks ago I blogged about Change and the Church. This week I’m blogging about Change and You.
Shortly after President George H. W. Bush left office, he described in detail his final flight on Air Force One after the inauguration of Bill Clinton. That day Bush woke up in the White House and went to bed in a rented house in Houston. He said that the next morning he woke up early and started reaching around in the dark, trying to find the button that for years had signaled the staff that he wanted a cup of coffee. He accidentally woke up Barbara, who figured out what he was trying to do. She said, “George, you’re just going to have to get up and go get it yourself. Its over!”
There are times when each of us have to deal with change that is thrust upon us. And that change requires us to do things differently than we did before. Mark Twain once said, “The only one who likes change is the baby with the dirty diaper.”
What change has been thrust upon you?