Month: September 2017

Do you struggle with change? Are you one of those who usually likes to keep things just as they are, especially when everything seems to be running just fine? I think most of us have struggled with this at various times in our lives, but the reality is that life is always changing around us and within us, and resistance to it often will make us feel incompatible with life. I had a great reminder of this recently with an upgrade to my computer’s operating system I kept pushing off.

In the Mac world, which is the type of computer I have, a brand-new version of operating system tends to come out in the beginning of each fall season. In the past, I generally never liked updating to any of these newer versions because I thought if things were running just fine why bother. And frequently, when I did do the upgrades, I sometimes ran into hiccups during the conversion, which made things far more frustrating for a period of time. But unfortunately, as technology continues to make leaps and bounds in advancements, software gets updated, which in turn creates incompatibilities if one doesn’t upgrade their operating system. I discovered this a few years back when I crossed my arms and refused to budge on updating my own through several iterations until one day I couldn’t do a function on my computer anymore that I always did. When I looked into it, I found out my system had become outdated and needed a total overhaul. But even in remembering that, I found myself repeating the same behavior again on a newer Mac I have now with the most recent release of Mac’s operating system that’s named “Sierra”. Why was I resisting this change again? Simply put, fear. In fact, resistance to change always relates to some type of fear, usually a fear of not knowing what life will be like on the other side of the change.

Nevertheless, I still felt a nudge for months on end to get this software upgrade done so I finally opted to call Apple support the other day to help alleviate some of my fears before attempting it. Ironically, when the customer service agent answered the phone and said, “Hi, my name is Sierra, how many I help you?”, I silently wondered if this was God having a sense of humor by giving me the one agent who had the same name as the operating system I was afraid to change to. Regardless, after a ten-minute call with her, I found the courage to begin the install and several hours later, the whole process was done, with only a few minor hiccups happening along the way. I felt a whole lot better, and my computer seemed to be running much faster, with a couple noticeable improvements.

Change is often a lot like this, isn’t it? We fight and fight and fight to resist it, fearing the worst, and frequently miss out on improvements to our lives that could come if we went through it. And in the process of resisting change, we become stagnant, indignant, negative, and on some level, incompatible with others. Eventually, it all catches up with us though, usually forcing us to go through it with a lot more difficulty down the way, as compared to how it would have been if we had gone through it much sooner. And no matter when we do go through some type of change, those hiccups do occur, often upsetting our egos who then try to convince us that change is never worth it. But when we choose to press through those hiccups and ignore our egos, the other side of change is generally far better than a life that resists change.

I guess that’s why I’m kind of grateful I’m more open to change nowadays than I ever used to be. Because things like my newly updated operating system that seems to be running much more smoothly now is but a small taste of what I feel God can update in our lives, if we merely remain open to change. Changes that God sees and knows we need to make in our lives that will lead to a far better life, one that runs more smoothly and more compatible with both the ever-changing world around us and within us…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson