I was sitting in our local McDonalds early one morning last week having some breakfast and doing some reading when I looked over and took this photo. Of course, it wasn’t anything new to me. It’s already been “years” since any of us can recall the good ol’ days of life being normal. Playgrounds all over the world were shut down faster than the NFL season.
I sat there remembering the times my son Quinn would play plan in that play area. He’d go up to taller, older kids and say “Hi. What’s your name?” They’d tell him and he would promptly ask them to help him up to the next level since he was too short. My twin girls, Chloe and Sidney and my other son, Zane, too had lots of fun times in this playground and others like the ones at ChickFiLa. As parents it was a great way to grab a few minutes to talk or simply chill from the busyness. Kids would scream in fun, run around, go up and down numerous times, lose a shoe, eventually get hurt and come running out crying and then we’d leave. Fun times.

But 2020, Covid and mankind’s fear gave us all a new normal. Covid is this generations 9/11.
Hard to believe in 2021 we paid our 20th anniversary tribute to the evil acts of 9/11. Twenty years. Say that with me again…Twenty years.
I remember exactly what I was and nearly every detail of that long day. I’m sure you do too.
And, I remember how things changed. Forever.
No more walkin’ loved ones through the airport. Metal detectors at all major events. No large bags allowed. Rules upon rules regarding travel and getting half naked before getting your full body scanned. Facial recognition cameras installed all over the country. No more in and out access. Technology taking the place of simplicity and privacy. Worried faces about what would happen next.
Twenty years later we have all of that and more.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – said by In 1849, by French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse. More commonly said these days as “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
According to Wiktionary, this proverb makes the observation that “even the most turbulent of changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.”
We all know already that the days before Covid aren’t ever really going to fully come back. I’ve got my reasons why and I am sure you have yours. Conspiracies aside, what we see now for the most part is what we get. I believe 2022 will likely cement most of these changes into the “status quo”.
I don’t think the playgrounds will ever open back up. Temporarily closed will soon be permanently closed and removed.
So how do we respond?
Not in fear. Not in angst. Not dismay.
We respond in kind…by changing with it.
As the world changes, so must we. We change for the better. We change to be more loving, pure and Godly in the wake of uncertainty.
Our like my favorite brand “Life is Good” says…. We change to be more like the person our dog thinks we are.
That’s the change we can all embrace.
I hope for me it’s my new realty. I pray the same for you.
Don’t let the world determine your status quo. Let God changing you do that instead.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
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