This past week we went to Disney World. Sarah and I both hadn’t been in about 25 years or more. I remember the wonder and magic, the rides and more.
It’s grown, it’s changed, and you no longer stand in incredibly long lines.
Don’t worry, there are still lots of strollers, lots of Mickey ears, lots of tears and exhaustion…and some kids are crying and exhausted too, lots of hopes and expectations, and lots of credit card debt.
But now there are also virtual lines, and lighting lanes, and queue groups, and magic genie plus on a Disney World app that tells you wait times if you do stand in line, and gives you directions to where you want to go, and ability to make reservations, and mobile order food and it was my room key and more.
In some ways, this feels almost nothing like the park I went to 25 plus years ago…and yet in other ways it is oddly familiar. It’s just grown up.
Several years ago I tried doing the Whole30. In case you don’t know what it is, you probably will not want to pay attention for a few moments. The idea is that you take all the fun things…sorry…I mean…processed foods and foods we don’t “need” out of your diet and eat only lame things…sorry…I mean…whole foods for 30 days.
A little over a year ago I went to get some frozen fruit out of my fridge for a smoothie…and what should have been hard as rock frozen fruit were just slightly mushy. Not a big deal. I figured the freezer had been opened too long loading stuff in or it hadn’t gotten closed all the way or something else. As time went on I noticed again and again, things weren’t as frozen solid as I wanted them to be.
We are people who generally want more. Time. Money. Influence. Power. In Genesis, we see Adam and Eve created in the image of God. They are like God, made by God, and have the breath of God in them. They are given the power to create and responsibility to steward creation…
It’s funny what we let control us. We think we know what is good for us, but if we aren’t careful, we will give authority over ourselves away. We buy phones believing they are made to serve us, yet if we aren’t careful, we serve them. We respond to their every need. We have given the phone authority over us. We likely give lots of things unearned authority over us…
