I have a rule that I follow with most things and it is this: only change one thing.

When you need to make a change to something, anything, it doesn’t matter; just make one change. 

If you just make one change, you can see the impact of that change and can then figure out the next change to make if there needs to be one.

A good example is when I’m in the car with my wife, Lily, and she says it’s too hot or too cold. She will immediately reach for the temperature dial and move it and, at the same time, adjust the fan.

I tell her all the time that’s she’s doing too much, and we will invariably very soon need to adjust the temperature in the other direction.

Of course, that next change will be too much as well, so we just go back and forth. 

It is better to adjust one thing – like only the fan – and then wait to see if that will bring the desired result. If not, then move the temperature down one click of the dial.

And again, wait. It’s the way to tell what affect the change is making.

If you make more than one change, you don’t know which change did what and you don’t know what to do to correct it. 

It’s simple and it works well.

Today I signed up to play shinny hockey for the first time this fall. I played hockey a few times last month on rented ice but this was the first with city-run shinny.

There are new rules with COVID and I wrote about that experience in a previous post. You can read about it (here). 

For the sake of arena staff safety and social distancing, there were a number of changes that have been put in place. 

I was fully prepared that those changes would be the same for shinny as for rented ice. I figured I would still have to get my hockey gear on in the rink parking lot … no big deal. 

But they did something else – that extra change that makes it impossible to see if their first change was enough.

What they did was reduce the time allowed on the ice from one hour and twenty minutes to fifty minutes.

Why?! 

City shinny has been one hour and twenty minutes for the last twenty-four plus years. Why make that change? 

How would that help with COVID? How could it add to the safety of anything? All they needed to do was the one thing to make it COVID safe.

When I went to shinny there were only three skaters. Last year at this time they had to turn people away. 

So why were there only three people? We don’t know whether people don’t like the COVID restrictions or whether they don’t like the reduced time. 

They should have made one change only.

Here’s the thing: When we ask God for something, often we will still try to handle it ourselves. If you don’t give God time to answer your prayer, when the answer comes you won’t be sure if you brought the answer or God did. That will lead you to miss seeing God’s desire and ability to answer your requests. If you want God’s help, just do the one thing: ask. Then be patient. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What issue in your life do you just need to do one thing for right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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