Tag Archives: amazon

day 2225: When Change Comes A Knocking

“Afterward I will returnand restore the fallen houseof David.”

It is without argument that Amazon has disrupted the retail industry enough now that we are seeing the demise of the brick and mortar retailers that we had been so used to as part of our everyday lives.  Last week in Louisville I drove by a shuttered K-Mart and I can’t imagine that anything else will soon want to lease that amount of space.  (Ironically K-Mart was founded the same year I was born…let’s hope I don’t soon follow suit). But, this isn’t the first time retail has been shaken to its core.  Robert Gordon, author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth, wrote: “The Sears catalog had an even bigger impact in 1900 than Amazon has had today. Like today’s e-commerce powerhouse, the Sears catalog provided shoppers more choice than ever before, and at lower prices. Sears freed shoppers from the tyranny of the local general merchant and improved their living standards. The cost of living went down the minute Sears became available.” What we just expect to always be there, will be shaken by the advances of technology and changing societal patterns.  Whether or not the shaking topples the players in an industry all depends on whether or not the foundation relationship with the consumer is strong enough to allow the corporation to change and adapt.  If it is, then like many a store that outlived the Sears Catalogue, they will survive.  But, if that relationship is built only on price and convenience, then watch out!

I’ve more than once pondered what can change the way we relate with God.  I am an adopter of many of the Faith-oriented Apps, which do a great job of reminding and triggering us to stay close to Him, but at the end of the day, nothing can replace our own time in reading the Word, praying, fellowship, and worship.  There is no app for adding “faster” or more “conveniently” to what God wants for us.  So, in order to remain patient and seeking of Him, we shouldn’t be looking for the next new thing when the original and best is right in front of us. And we can rest assured that anything that the world tears down and tries to replace Him with, He will, as He has always done, will return and restore!

Reference: Acts 15:16 (New Living Translation)

 

 

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