Game Changers

The past week has brought an interesting analogy to the world of politics and the American landscape. Sarah Palin's rocket launch into the world of everyday America has many calling her a "game changer". The type of player who forces their opponents to revert to different tactics, to scrap previous plans and adjust accordingly, because if you don't, you lose. She has changed the entire dynamic of the election. The star power and bravado Barak Obama brought to the national stage over the last year was just as powerful, and his rise almost as fast. Both of these personalities have sparked the attention of average Americans, much like an incredible sporting event does, or a Soprano's series finale.

A "game changer", as the term is used for Palin, turns a situation upside down, on its head. You have to start over.

We're all looking for that type of moment. The moment in our lives where things go blurry, fade, black, and then upside down. Granted, we want it to go for the better, but we want the game changer, we need the game changer. How it comes... well, that's the risk, the Hail-Mary pass. It fails most of the time but once in awhile, it changes careers, lives, loves, and us. It changes US.

It can come with a team picking up that one player, the last piece of the messy puzzle that makes things work, puts you over the top and turns a franchise around for years to come. It can come by doing something so unexpected everyone has to sit a little closer to the edge of their seat to see or hear what you're about to say. It can come when a church is in the midst of a step that could change the course of its future. Something risky, that people may not respond to. They need the game changer.

It's scary. But a good shake up is what we all need.

Or, it can come while you sit in a car with friends, having a conversation that changes you. The kind where for the first time things are revealed, exposed, and brought to light. Where it doesn't seem so bad and for the first time in a long time you're able to breathe life, freedom, and ease into the situation.

Change is dynamic.

Change has been the tired, yet effective dynamic of this election year. It plays. Now and always. You know it when you see it. You feel a new dynamic when its there. It's here on both sides. Which way you go is up to you. But to say it's not here, and that you don't need it is even more risky. Not just on the national stage, but on the personal.

Where will it come from?
How will it show itself?
When will your life be turned upside down?

In the middle of a conversation?

It did for me.