How many of you every owned or operated a Polaroid camera? They were all the rage “back in the day.” Those cameras allowed people to almost instantly see the pictures they took, rather than wait for days while the film was being developed. The company is still around, but only as a shell of its former self. They declared bankruptcy in 2001. What led to this? The digital camera basically took over the market, and Polaroid didn’t anticipate its impact until it was too late.
How about the Blockbuster company? They were a huge retailer that rented movies and video games. In 2004 Blockbuster employed 84300 people and had over 9000 stores. Blockbuster also filed for bankruptcy when they didn’t transition to a digital model. In one of the biggest business blunders of all time, they decided to pass on buying Netflix in the year 2000.
Here is one more story like this, but for this one I won’t ask you if you remember it. In the 1870s Alexander Graham Bell offered to sell the patent for the telephone to Western Union for $100,000. The president of Western Union declined to buy it, thinking that the telephone was not fit for commercial use (the telegraph was king at the time). He was incredibly wrong about this of course.
What really happened in each of these stories? There was no adaptation to change. Does that strike you as odd? Isn’t life always about change? Try to list all of the things that change as you go through life. There are physical changes of course, and mental ones. Your education changes, as does your job. Your family and friends change. Pretty much everything around you changes.
But if life is all about change why is it so hard for us to do willingly? Maybe it is because we are creatures of habit. Do you take the same route to the grocery store all the time? Do you go church, school, or your job the same way? I do. The status quo is comfortable. We can better predict what will happen (at least we think we can). Also, changing things ourselves can be hard. This is why there are so many companies that help people lose weight. If it was easy we wouldn’t need their help. And changing someone else is an even tougher task.
The bible has plenty of examples of people who were forced to change. It isn’t hard to list a few of them:
Abraham, going to a new land
Moses, helping to deliver his people.
Job, having to pick up the pieces and start over.
Jonah, going to the hated city of Ninevah.
And then there is Mary.
Luke 1:26-33
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Did Mary have a choice? I suppose you could argue this one. But if she didn’t then what was the purpose of an angel telling her anything? Maybe it was as simple as this. A message was delivered that change is coming. Get ready as best as you can.
There are those of us (like Jonah in the list above) who fight change. Mary was not one of them. She accepted this news and became the mother of Jesus. This immediate acceptance is one of the most remarkable things in scripture. We don’t see it very often. But when we do it is amazing.
For most of us there are stages of change, and people can drift back and forth through them. The first stage is simply one where you don’t realize that a change needs to happen. People around you may be telling you that you need to change but you don’t pay them any attention. The second stage is one of contemplation, where you do become aware that a change in your life needs to be made, but you haven’t decided on doing anything just yet. The actual commitment comes next, in a stage of preparation. This is followed by action, where you actually put into practice the change you are looking to make. The last stage is one where you maintain the change you have made. You learn how to live with the change you have made.
Change is inevitable. It happens all the time, to virtually every part of our life. God sends messages to the God’s people too, asking them to change in different ways for the better. What are the things you would like to change in your life? What can you do now to start down that path? Give some thought this week to any changes that you believe should happen.
God Bless