change? change? change?

Change is inevitable

…except from a vending machine

That little quip is not original to me and is attributed to Robert C. Gallagher, but I rather like it for several reasons.

It makes me smile. The first time I came across it I remember giggling at it as it was funny. Now, the giggle reflex is no longer triggered by it, but it still amuses me and makes me smile because it’s still funny.

It’s clever and familiar. It takes a truism – ‘change is inevitable’ – and adds another level to it. We all know the frustration of not having the right money for a vending machine, and the equal frustration of putting money into a machine that’s supposed to give change and not getting the change out.

It’s good humour. A key aspect of humour is that it takes us somewhere we weren’t expecting. I looked deeply into humour when I trained as a Baptist minister and wrote a dissertation on God’s sense of humour. If you’re so inclined you can read it here, but do remember it’s an undergraduate dissertation not a fully thought through theological work. Humour is good for us physiologically and emotionally (releasing endorphins) and also cognitively. I like Dr Jonathan Miller’s description of one of the purposes / benefits of humour being a: “sabbatical let-out in one part of the brain and one part of our competence to enable us to put things up for grabs; to reconsider categories and concepts so that we can redesign our relationships to the physical world, to one another, and even to our own notion of what it is to have relationships.”

So, back to where I began. Change is inevitable …except from a vending machine. I think that, because we find comfort in familiarity, we may be hardwired not to like change. Change can feel threatening, unsettling. The hymn ‘Abide with me’ – often sung at funerals and at FA Cup Finals (I still can’t square that circle) includes the line ‘change and decay in all I see’. The line reinforces a negative attitude to change by associating it with decay.

But change is inevitable. Things don’t stay the same. We age. Seasons change. We live in a complex system where so much of what happens is beyond our control. A car may break down because a component in the engine is faulty, which causes a traffic jam. A lorry driver gets stuck in the traffic jam so can’t deliver supplies to our local shop which has run out of milk so we can’t buy milk for our cup of tea so we try a different drink. Change caused by a faulty engine component in stranger’s car.

So what do we do? Do we have a knee-jerk reaction to resist change, lament it, push back against it? Or do we carefully consider it and make a decision about whether it’s good or bad, and then whether to adapt to it, adopt it or find an alternative?

In UK we have just got a new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham. In what passes for new reporting nowadays a reporter went out into the street and spoke to people about what they thought. Inevitably (as is always the case, so why do they bother?) responses were mixed. Some said it was good. Some said it was bad. Some said that they would wait and see what happens.

That final response seems wise, doesn’t it? It’s rather like what’s called ‘the wisdom of Gamaliel’ in the Bible. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, and return to heaven, his followers were making a hugely positive impact on the people who lived in Jerusalem. The religious leaders (many of whom had been involved in the decision to crucify Jesus) had the apostle arrested. Miraculously during the night God opened the prison doors so they could leave and they went straight back to telling people about Jesus. The religious leaders had them brought in front of them so they could try to work out what to do: many of them wanted to put the apostles to death.

Gamaliel, a respected teacher, said, “…I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.’ (Acts 5:38-39)

So they had the apostles flogged (just as a warning) and let them go.

I have heard lots of people say that Gamaliel was wise in what he said. And perhaps he was. But what he failed to do was make a decision. He missed out on what God was doing. ‘Wait and see what happens’ is okay as a response, but you may miss out. Instead you could get involved, participate, perhaps influence things from ‘inside’ and embrace the new situation.

As a Christian I would encourage people to pray as part of the discernment process. As well as using your brain and common sense, and considering your gut instinct, ask God about it. When you have a sense of the right thing to do, go for it. And then you may realise that with contactless card payments you don’t need to get change out of a vending machine – change has been good!

Be blessed, be a blessing.