Phil Cooke has a production company in LA. I met him and heard him speak at an event in Frt. Lauderdale, FL some years ago. I was emailed the following special report from the site of the london underground explosions.
by Phil Cooke (July 7th, London)
This week, the Cooke Pictures crew is in London shooting a documentary film, and on the way to our first location today, we were driving less than a block from the explosion at the King's Cross Underground station. As you undoubtedly know by now, London was hit with multiple subway and bus explosions today and the chaos has literally brought this historic city to a standstill.
The subway and bus systems are shut down completely, and motorists are urged to stay at home and off the roads. Much of the city is blocked off with police lines so the investigations can begin, making it incredibly difficult to navigate in a car. We didn't realize the totality of the events until we were filming later outside Parliament, and a security guard filled us in. We were forced to stop our work, and it took over an hour just to drive a few miles back to the hotel, as we had to snake through police blockades, and the confusion of millions of people in the streets trying to find safety.
Within a few hours after the initial blasts, the city has become much like a ghost town. Most of the businesses and retail stores are closed. In the central city, very few vehicles are in the streets, while in the outer areas, the streets are jammed. The theater district is dark. Some restaurants are open to service the vast number of people forced to walk home. Needless to say, finding a taxi is virtually impossible. Even this e-mail has been delayed because most of the internet services are jammed or down.
As I watched the chaos of the events, drove through the police blockades, and listened to the reports on the radio, the thought that filled my mind was "change." With the cowardly but devastating impact of terrorism, the world is a different place. Changes are happening at the speed of light, and only those who are really ready for change will be able to cope.
Seeing the stunned people leave the damaged tube stations and watching distraught interviews on television, I realized that those who were caught off-guard the most were people very set in their ways. People who never expected anything unusual to happen, and people who came to work every day, year after year, thinking the same events would always continue. But those individuals most prepared for change, came through the nightmare in far better shape. Listening to post event interviews, it's easy to see that some people cope with change far better than others, and for those, the unexpected isn't something that shakes them to the core--even during events as horrible as today's events.
Finally, from this moment on, I'm reminded to live my life in a positive attitude of change. Recognizing that change happens, and if I am to live my life to the fullest, and make the greatest impact, I must live on the edge of change. That doesn't mean fear, and it doesn't mean to withdraw from life, but it means to recognize that nothing short of heaven is unchanging. Writer Oswald Chambers called it "gracious uncertainty."
Sometimes we have to let go of our obsessive demands for clarity, trust God, and understand that we all need to recognize and understand change.
What areas of your life or business needs to recognize the power of change? How can you be better prepared for upsetting events, or catastrophic changes in your world? Never forget that the fastest way to failure and defeat, is to allow change to take us by surprise.
London is a great city and will survive and prosper. We'll hopefully continue our filming tomorrow.
The clean-up across the city continues, but the changes will be felt for a lifetime.
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