RESTART

 I love how God uses everyday, nominal occurrences to grab my attention. Let me paint the picture for you. I’m sitting at my writing desk wrapping up Sunday online service when that annoying pop up banner appears with the same pesky alert that reads something like “Update available. Do you want to restart your computer?” The options read: RESTART or LATER. For months, I’ve hit the LATER button continuously irritated that it just won’t go away!  It’s not that I don’t think the updates are necessary. I don’t have a particular issue with updating my computer; however, what I do have an issue with is how long it usually takes to complete. When I take time out to sit at my computer to do anything I want to do it now. I don’t think about completing the updates any other time. It’s only when I get that pesky pop up that I think, “I should really do that but I don’t have time.”

I literally had the cursor hovering above the LATER button when I stopped dead in my tracks. Images flooded my mind of my computer taking forever to load, or the video buffering while I’m trying to watch them, or site freezing in the midst of me scrolling. Then the question arises, “Why do you think you have so many challenges when you’re trying to complete a task on your computer? Should you just replace the entire computer? Is it trash or could it have anything to do with those pesky little updates that you’ve continued to ignore over the past few months?”……This is where the moment of sheer stupidity and revelation mix.

I took a moment to take a deep breath and hit the RESTART button. As expected, because I keep a ton of windows and applications open I had take time to save those. Then the installation had to take up the full screen with a loading bar. Then there was a reboot that had to occur which took several minutes. Then I had to log in and retype my Apple password. In total it took about 30 minutes but because I had things I wanted to complete those 30 minutes felt like days!! But here’s the kicker… after the updates my websites loaded with no issue, videos played without delay, and the overall experience improved because I took 30 minutes to allow what my computer was designed to do to improve its capabilities and more importantly, my experience! That’s when that quiet voice appeared and I knew I had entered into another teachable moment.

How many experiences in our lives are made so much more difficult because we won’t take the time to acknowledge those pesky moments that interrupt our day to day? We are people on a mission. We have deadlines and obligations that often keep us hitting snooze on the very thing that is meant to catapult us into a new dimension that will make some of our most difficult experiences disappear. The issue we have is slowing down enough to recognize the signs and even when we do we put them off, constantly hitting the LATER button and wondering why we’re running in place getting nowhere fast. God has set up all types of signs that show us what we need to do, who we need to connect with, and how we need to do it but we have our own agendas,  our own plans, and we often screw them up royally.

Here’s my plea to you as I make the same demand on myself. Be more present. Acknowledge the signs when they appear. If a restart is what’s necessary to improve your quality of life do it now! Stop wasting years drowning in an existence that is beneath your full potential. And before I sign out let me just reference the timing. I spent MONTHS being annoyed by a message designed to help me and MONTHS tolerating a subpar internet experience and for what?! It took 30 minutes to improve. Even though those few minutes were painful because of my impatience it was still only 30 minutes and honestly the timing was a lot shorter than I expected. Our imaginations can often create things to be much worse than what they actually have to be. So trust God, take the time to invest in areas that have been neglected and live your best life now!

Scripture Reference – Matthew 21: 1-11