Thought for Today
Numbers 23:19 God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
1 Samuel 15:29 Moreover the Glory of Israel will not recant or change his mind; for he is not a mortal, that he should change his mind."
Matthew 18:3 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
James 1:17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
I have been watching a special on television dealing with WWII. Part of my fascination with that war is because I was born during the war and my earliest memories are from the years immediately following that war and our disaster in Korea. The episode I watched last night covered the final days of the war in the Pacific, the dropping of the bombs in Japan and the rise of the Cold War. I do not remember FDR, his presidency or even his death. My earliest memories of a U.S.A. president are of Harry Truman. His presidency was the primary focus of what I watched last night.
One of the most salient and interesting ideas arising from that series on WWII is the realization of the paradigm shifting technology which arose from the war and its aftermath. If I expand the focus a bit more broadly, I believe that the first half of the 20th century will prove to be one of the most significant periods in human development.
A favorite example I often cite is the life of my maternal grandfather. Pop was born in 1883. The first transcontinental railroad across the U.S.A. was completed in 1869. There were only 38 states in the union when Pop was born. Electricity had reached many major cities, but only reached the smaller farming communities like his hometown until the 1930s. Most travel was by foot, horseback or stagecoach. Before my grandfather died, the U.S.A. had landed a man on the moon.
Sadly, much of the technology we enjoy today exists because of the wars we have fought. The Civil War ended about 15 years before Pop’s birth and was fought using muskets and flintlocks. There were some rifles used in that war. Canons were still being used. Cavalry units still rode horses. The wars we fight today use much more advanced (?) weaponry. I have memories from my youth of air raid sirens going off every Friday at noon, of elementary bomb drills during which we knelt in front of our metal lockers for protection from atomic bombs . . . even though we lived in what would have assuredly been ground zero for a nuclear attack on the U.S.A.’s energy industry.
Our world has greatly changed from the world into which my grandfather was born and even from the world into which I was born. There have been waves of life-transforming consumer products. Television, computers, jet aircraft, space rockets, satellites and a host of other innovations have changed our world and the ways in which we interact with our world.
As we age, the word change becomes a very scary word. Youth thrives on change. Age is skeptical toward change. Youth finds change exciting, filled with possibilities of escape from the problems and issues of the present. Age has learned that ‘all progress requires change, but not all change is progress.’ Youth finds adapting to ‘new and different’ exciting and hopeful. Age finds adapting to ‘new and different’ challenging and increasingly difficult.
Looking backward at where the 20th century began, I am amazed and astounded by the world in which we live today. Looking forward toward where we are headed, I am curious and concerned.
Through it all, however, we need to always keep in mind that there is at least one permanent, unchanging thing upon which we can depend. “Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.” God always was, always is and always will be God.
Do not fear, rest securely in God’s arms, trust God,
Pastor Ray