Push the Right Buttons
Dan Kunz
As some of you know, my wife and I moved into a new home a little over two years ago. It was a “new build”, so although we’re not complete slaves to technology, it certainly has more new tech ideas than our former home of over forty years. I joke that I may have to go back to school to learn how to operate everything. One of the facets of our new home, which is completely different than the old, is how our lights are operated. Although we had one or two “dimmer switches” in our former house, most lights were operated by a simple on-and-off switch on the wall. In a few rooms, two switches could operate the same light, but that was about the extent of the complexity. Our new home, however, turns the complexity up several notches.
Every room has a switch plate with at least four small pushbuttons on it. One may be for the lights in that room. One may be for the lights in the next room. One may be for the lights in the previous room. One may be for what’s called a “scene”. This switch can turn on pre-specified lights to a certain brightness, turn on outlets with lamps attached, and even raise or lower blinds to a certain height. Some have another pushbutton which turns off all the lights in an area. We can also operate all this technology from our phones! To say this can be confusing is the understatement of the year. Amazingly, though, even an “old dog” can learn new tricks and, as the Marine credo goes, “improve, adapt, and overcome”.
After a few weeks of living in our new home, I found myself instinctively reaching for certain buttons to turn lights and other things on and off without having to bend over and peer at the tiny labels on the switches to accomplish what I wanted. It became a part of my life’s routine. In the morning, walk into the bathroom and push the button for the vanity lights to wash my face, walk down the hall and push the button for the kitchen and great room lights. Push the button to raise the great room blinds. You get the idea. Occasionally, our electrician has returned and changed some of the switches to accommodate what we want in a certain room. I’m amazed at how quickly I can adapt to “pushing different buttons”!
Isn’t that the way it is throughout our lives? We do so many things through simple repetition which very quickly becomes a habit – how we brush our teeth, how we make our morning coffee, or how we say goodbye to our loved ones when they leave from a visit. Those habits are good things which make our lives stable and anxiety-free. We can, however, also develop habits which, like a new set of wall switches, need to be adapted and re-learned. On one side, over the years we may have formed a habit such as losing our temper, gossiping, using crude language, or taking God’s name in vain, which needs to be eliminated. On the other side, we may need to improve our prayer life by being more thoughtful in our prayers and not vain and repetitious. We may need to develop an actual schedule for reading our Bibles or doing an individual Bible study. We may need to start taking notes during the Sunday sermon to improve our attention and retention of the points made by the pastor.
It's said that old habits die hard, but they can and do die. New habits are difficult to form, but not impossible (like pushing the right button). This is an area where we can easily encourage one another, “You can do it.” II Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Self-control is the key to many things in life, and God’s power enables us to use it to bless ourselves and others!