Some Things Ever-Changing, and Some Things Never-Changing

by Philip C. Strong

We probably need both sets, but ought to really give thanks for the things that never change!

I’ve never considered myself necessarily “lucky” when it comes to games of chance and the like. But I am very “fortunate” in any number of ways. One of these, which comes to mind each year about this time (as others start to complain of the cooler temperatures), is that by the time the season begins to change, I’m ready for it. I don’t mean that I’ve prepared in some way, just that I’m usually ready for the hot weather to be over and eagerly anticipating the cool crispness of the air when the wind finally swings around to the north and it’s time to build a fire! I likewise will look forward to the warming trend of spring, the rebirth of the vegetation, and the following sultry days of summer. I don’t think I would like living in a climate that never changes. The ever-changing seasons add color to our lives! They make life more interesting, and sometimes even more challenging.

Many other aspects of life are ever-changing, which help make life new, fresh, and exciting even as the years pass by. Our relationships are always changing. Marriages and births add new family members. These help ease the pain and hardship of relationships lost due to death or other circumstances, such as relocation. The younger folks keep us aware of the ever-changing fashions of the day (or minute!). We may not like them– I “hate” clothes that require the constant adjustment factor because they don’t fit. The boys are having to hold their pants up because they’re too big, and the girls have to pull their tiny shirts down and their skimpy pants up since they don’t meet in the middle as they should! Surely these will change soon! Then, too, our job requirements are ever-changing as the demands of our world and its technology change by the minute. I could not have possibly imagined in the early nineties when I first started using a “word-processing typewriter” (OK, so I was slow to latch on to the technology bandwagon!) in my preaching work that even this article would be posted on a website in 2006 that anyone in the world could read! The point is that all of these ever-changing aspects of our lives make them fresh, new, and challenging.

But there is a “flip-side” to all of this change– those things which never change. How chaotic would our lives be if there were nothing on which we could depend to remain the same? What if gravity weren’t constant? What if the Earth didn’t remain the same distance from the Sun? On a slightly less cosmic level, think about how your life would change if the tides, seasons, and moon phases weren’t as stable as they are. All of these things can be calculated well in advance because of their stability. There are other things that seemingly never change… the inevitable death and taxes! These, too, are ever-present reminders that some things never change. More positively, the stability that comes from family and faith makes our lives manageable. We can survive and even thrive in the ever-changing world in which we live because of the things that never change– the love and support of our families that will always “be there” for us in good times and bad, and the stability of our faith that is based upon the unchangeableness of God’s word (cf. Hebrews 6:17-18). These “constants” in our lives should give us the foundation for making all of life’s decisions, no matter what else changes around us. Without these necessary stabilizing factors, it is easy to see why many people struggle to adjust to and manage their lives these days. Children reared in dysfunctional homes do not have that stability from which to maintain a moral and social equilibrium. And youngsters who grow up without the constant presence of God’s Word being taught and practiced in their homes have no sound foundation from which to determine the right and wrong of anything and are therefore sure to flounder into a moral morass.

The things that should and do constantly change in our lives indeed make living exciting and refreshing. But the things that never change, and shouldn’t, keep life from consuming us. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews put it best in this regard:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever” (Hebrews 8:13).

May we all be of the mindset to thank God our Creator for making these things so for we couldn’t make it through this ever-changing world without Him who changes not!