Have you ever wondered why your keyboard is in the order of: QWERTYUIOP?

Urban legend has it, when typewriters were first invented, typists could type faster than the machines could function.  As people typed, the linkage connecting letters to keys would jam-up something terrible.  So, the manufactures figured out a way to slow down, purposefully slow down the typist.  How?  They mixed up the order of the letters in such a way that people would be forced to slow down as they typed.  I don’t know if that was true or not, I wasn’t around in the 1870’s.  So, with all of the technical-advances in the last 100 + years, why hasn’t someone changed the layout on the keyboard?  Good question, since it would be beneficial.  Look at your Blackberry or touch screen keyboard on your I-pad and then ask that again... I guess change is harder than we think?

There are plenty more stories like QWERTY that are traceable, like the Ferguson Breach rifle that could’ve changed the outcome of the Revolutionary war.  Thankfully, the British decided not to transition from their slower musket-loaders to the Ferguson; they had access to the more efficient weapon but were unwilling to retrain their troops.  Or, remember how the Swiss hesitated to switch over to Quartz movement in their watches, but the Japanese jumped on the use of Quartz movement and quickly cornered the market, a market previously dominated by the Swiss for centuries.

How we travel has changed too.  After all, who wants to travel by boat anymore now that we have the Jet airplane?  I don’t know, ask the Cruise ship industry.  A flight might be convenient, but people still enjoy a Cruise ship, or even a train ride today.  Once, boat and train travel were slow and dangerous, and today they are considered luxurious.  Remember what Solomon wrote: “What has been is what will be,and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

While we all struggle with personal changes, we need to remember that change might feel like a loss at the time, but it does not create a void; change creates a choice.  Sure, you may write an email to a friend across the country, but I promise a handwritten note will carry more weight, have more meaning or significance.  Really? Yes.  Ever wonder why your Grandmother doesn’t just text you a Christmas greeting, or your aunt send you a birthday text?  We still value the handwritten note over any other correspondence, even in an electronic age.  I guess we could say there’s room for multiple forms of communication...?

Jesus wants to transform us, not replace us with robots or pet dogs; He wants us to become what we are not.  He wants us to replace hypocrisy with empathy so we can have authentic relationships, that’s why He says get the log out of your eye.  He wants us to bear fruit and reject apathy, that’s why He says if we love Him we’ll obey Him.  He wants us to have hearts that love unconditionally, that’s why He says “By this” all men will know you are my disciples.... if you have love one for another.  HE wants us to change who’s will we submit to... That’s why He says, “when you fed the least of these” because He wants us to change our view on who the universe revolves around...  This type of change is daily: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”  (II Cor 4:16)

Jesus wants to change you, doubtful?  Just wait till the Resurrection when in the blink of an eye we are all... Well here’s how Paul puts it in I Cor 15:52, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

Be radical for Jesus, and stay moldable, like clay in the Potter’s hands...

Craig

Gal 6:14