Throughout the 1990’s, one of my favorite weekend activities was renting movies from Blockbuster Videos. This chain of businesses had locations that stretched across the entire country to offer cinematic entertainment long before online streaming became a thought in our minds. My friends and I would make a night of it: order pizza and sodas, make fresh baked cookies for dessert, gather a mound of blankets and pillows, then pop a VHS tape into the VCR and hit the play button.
Aww . . . good times.
I’ll never forget the weekend I went into my neighborhood Blockbuster in search of a specific movie for our girls gathering and was blindsided to discover that the company had done a major overhaul during the previous week. They’d decided to make the switch from VHS tapes to DVDs. The entire store – aisle after aisle – was overflowing with this new advancement in technology.
The only problem was that they hadn’t asked me first! If they would have, I would have told them that I didn’t own a DVD player and had no intention of buying one. I had intentionally refused to advance with technology. I was satisfied with my VCR and intended to stick with it no matter how many DVD players I saw on display at the local Best Buy store. I was firm in my decision.
Until now.
Urgh. The audacity!
I steeped in frustration at the realization that I was being forced to change. They were leaving me no choice. Their overhaul would require me to shift in a way that I’d been previously uninterested and adverse to. Now, the circumstances were demanding me to do something new. Something else. Something different. So, I unhooked the VCR and purchased a DVD player.
Out with the old. In with the new.
Such is life.
How has yours demanded this of you lately? You woke up one regular, ordinary day to find that your circumstances changed without asking you first.
Your relationship dynamics.
Your children’s personalities and needs.
Your job requirements.
Your physical health.
Your culture’s concerns.
Your local church’s dynamics.
You were settled, satisfied and comfortable with the way things were and honestly, everything around you, supported your complacency. But now, in the blink of an eye, everything shifted and has required that you do the same. Seasons like this can be frustrating and unsettling. Forced change always is.
Sister, I get it. I really do. Take a deep breath. Regain your composure. Reevaluate your new realities. And then . . .
Make the investment needed to adapt to your new reality.
Life changes and the time comes when we must too.
Priscilla
