Be Patient...Change is Coming!

Change is inevitable to just about any activity in which we choose to engage ourselves. At some point down the road, rules will change, layouts will change, the way we use a devise will update; I can hardly keep up with the latest iPhone/iPad out these days. Take for example the Facebook changes of late.  People have reacted with outrage to Facebook making recent changes in the layout and the manner in which we interact with the site. Friends have voiced displeasure in an overwhelming number of status updates of protest. What an inconvenience to have to learn a new way to read and post to Facebook!  Really?  It's free to use and we should be thrilled at the opportunity to save cell phone user minutes/dollars to keep updated with friends and family.  If not for Facebook and Twitter too,  we'd never know when old college buddies became grandparents or got a promotion at work or had retired. With the growing number of complaints about Facebook changes, I scoffed when I read a status update displaying disdain at such Facebook alterations. I even posted in essence for my FB friends to quit whining about Facebook and get over it. Not my exact wording but that's what I meant.

Then, after not posting to Blogger.com since early last July, I find my blog dashboard had been changed and I was at first a little...well...upset. I couldn't figure out how to post a new blog entry. It didn't look the same. Where were the tabs I was accustomed to seeing when I logged on?  Where were all the features I'd grown comfortable using?  Did I mention I couldn't post?!  I couldn't even find my archive. Argggh!  How dare they! Just as I was about to sink into despair, I noticed a rather prominent orange button with a pencil icon.  Oh, do you suppose it will let me post to my blog? I clicked the obvious button and there it was, New Post.  Next to the writing button, a list icon and a drop-down file. My archives!  Ahhh,  Happiness, home, comfort, satisfaction, contentment. 

My disdain and unhappiness with the Blogger.com changes were much like those of my fellow Facebook friends. I'm no better and whined and complained when my little world took on an unexpected change. My fellow human beings, we are not creatures of change, but creatures of habit. Change is difficult. Change takes more thinking than we want to do today. Change is work! But wait...it didn't take all that long for me to catch on to the Facebook changes, and chances are within another week most of my Facebook friends won't even care about the changes to their home page. Furthermore, didn't I find the orange New Post button within a few page entries?  It really wasn't all that difficult.  So, why do we get so upset about change?

That, my social-networking, blogging, Tweeting friends is human nature. We are impatient, self-centered, imperfect people. Oh, that we all could learn to roll with the punches, bend with the wind and be flexible!  As a public school teacher, my motto was Be Flexible. To the motto of my career, I would also add Be Patient.

Be Flexible-Be Patient!

Colossians 3:12

New International Version (NIV)

 ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.