How many moaning friends does it take to change a light bulb?

None!

They'd rather suffer alone in the dark!

We all know friends who would rather moan than take action; friends who seem to find some comfort and reassurance in 'the devil they know'. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't," meaning many people feel it better to put up with a difficult situation they already are in rather than risk a worse one by trying something new.

Here's a true story called, 'The Fridge of Darkness.'

We've got a fridge with a bold declaration on the front:

"Discover the new power LED..."

Sounds like it should be a Hollywood trailer! This new power LED is supposed to last 30x longer.

Ours didn't. Because it is supposed to last 30x longer, there are no instructions in the manual on how to change 'the new power LED'. This is not as easy as swopping out a good old-fashioned light bulb. It was so difficult that we put up with the devil we knew for over a year.

Then, I was stirred up to take action. Old wisdom echoed around my mind:

'Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,' or, 'Better to fix the light than to curse the darkness.'

It wasn't easy. I broke part of the fixture trying to get it off. Several times, over a period of months, I tried, failed, and kept giving up. I even thought about how lovely it would be to have a new fridge. Having broken a part of it, I do understand the wisdom of 'better the devil you know...' because I'd made the situation worse, not better.

Inspiration is often a light-bulb moment, isn't it? Let's challenge the truth of 'better the devil we know...' I really wanted to fix this. So, I called on the help of two of my best friends: Patience and Perseverance who settled down to the task of removing the fixture. We finally did it!

We still had no certainty of final victory - in fact the fridge was now in a far worse condition. (Oh, and I left the electricity on - getting some shocking feedback! I now think I light up in the dark!)

Soon, we had the new part, and, after turning the electricity off this time, I managed to fit it... ish. (Shhhh, no one will ever know it's not in quite right!)

Power up, light on! Victory!

A simple light can add so much joy and pleasure to one's 'fridge-experience' – especially after such a long period of darkness!

We could have enjoyed a year more of light if I'd been more patient and persevered earlier. I quit too soon. Why? Because I enjoyed the darkness? No! I quit because it took too long and it was too difficult to fix. There was no guarantee that it could be fixed, and I doubted my own DIY abilities.

There are elements of our lives that we are 'suffering' because fixing them seems too difficult and will take too long, and they may not be fixable anyway. We have chosen to endure the devil we know rather than risk a worse situation under the devil we don't know.

I invite us all to call in Patience, and Perseverance, and Proactively to give fixing the problem one more bash... just turn the electricity off first, eh?

Lex

A Moodscope member