As the grey in my beard takes control of my brain, I am beginning to think like old people. You know, that generation with the reputation for abhorring change. I’m beginning to understand the aversion. It’s because they are often on the wrong side of the deal. When you are young, change means getting a stronger body, getting smarter, more freedom, new opportunities, newer stuff . . . But when you get old, then the changes start happening in reverse. Your body changes for the worse. Change means losing muscle and gaining wrinkles. Your mind starts taking little holidays without you. The kids whom you taught to drive now demand you give up your license and your keys. The ocean of opportunities that surrounded you as a young person is a drying mud puddle. No wonder old people look on change with suspicion. It often treats them very badly. I’m still refusing to admit I’m old, and I try to embrace change whenever I can but even little changes sometimes make ME wince.
A new version of a version?
My Bible keeps getting updated. Not the printed one. The one on my phone. It’s like every few days the program wants to “auto-update” and at least once a month or so, it tells me my downloaded version of the Bible needs to be updated. For some reason, that bothers me. Am I crazy? I mean, why do they keep having to update it? Is God sending out revisions somewhere and I’m missing the news? With all the changes going on in the world, it would be nice to know there is something that is not changeable, not negotiable, and solidly entrenched in truth. A foundation that’s solid and immovable. If not the Bible, then what?
A club has bylaws. An organization has a charter. A republic has a constitution. What does a life have if not The Word of God? Everything else may change, but don’t change that on me. You may pretend its truth changes to fit your lifestyle if it makes you feel better about the way you are living or what you have decided to believe is true. You may embrace what culture, the media, and your friends tell you. But if you do, you will be clutching something that is constantly moving, constantly shifting, constantly changing. That’s no way to steady a life.
As I see it, there are two basic types of people. Those who determine to conform their life to The Word of God, and those who determine to conform the word of God to their life. One way helps you stand. The other is sure to let you fall.
“For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
– Malachi 3:6