Bob Dylan once sang, “The times, they are a-changing.” It’s more true now than when he sang it.
Change is a fact of life. We know change happens, but few of us find it easy or relish it. We are often comfortable with the way things are or, even more accurately, with the way things used to be. Therefore we often see change as the enemy and fight it rather than manage it or adapt to it. But as Charles Kettering wrote, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”
For centuries, people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was, after all, regarded as the greatest of all times and surely could not be wrong! So no one really challenged that belief until nearly 2000 years after Aristotle’s death. In 1589 Galileo went to the top the leaning Tower of Pisa and pushed off a ten-pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same time. But the power of belief in the familiar, conventional and comfortable wisdom was so strong that people denied what they had seen. They continued to say Aristotle was right, reinforcing the observation by Niccolo Machiavelli in his book, The Prince, that: “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”
It is never an issue of if things are going to change – things will always change. It’s an issue of determining our response to change. Will we fear it and fight it, or welcome it, manage it and creatively adapt to it? As Giuseppe Maccini put it, “Slumber not in the tents of your fathers. The world is advancing – advance with it.” Just one example. In my lifetime we have gone from the introduction of the 
black and white TV with pre-recorded programs to cameras mounted on computer monitors which enable us to see – live – the person with whom we are communicating. What sense does it make to fight this great progress? Why not learn to use it in creative and wholesome ways? Consider the impact of this great new – and still changing technology – during the COVID 19 pandemic. Businesses, families, churches, medical facilities – to mention a few – have found valuable new ways of communicating and being together.
We need to prayerfully welcome, manage 
and adapt to change – make it our friend and ally. The key is always to maintain our principles and core values while being flexible with our techniques and methods. “Methods are many, principles are few; methods often change, principles never do.” Only God, after all, never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means His character and His heart never waver; but how He works through and among His people and in His world is always changing. Author Henry Blackaby wrote, “God is always at work, and our job is to find out what’s He’s up to and join Him.” That is the best approach to change I know. Keep close to Christ and we will not only ride the winds of change – we will create the changes!
Until next blog …unless, of course, things change!
Burger King popularized the phrase “Have it your way.” Through it they promoted the idea that whatever we wanted on our burger we could have. What we wanted we received. Unfortunately, over the years, the phrase was co-opted by our culture to encourage doing whatever we want whenever we want. I wonder if we are now having it our way?
Three times Paul mentions God ‘gave 
them over’. There are times when God removes His hand of protection and safety to let humankind have its own way –it’s as if He says, “If that’s what you want, so be it. I’ll let you have it your way.” And we reap the consequences of our actions. Indeed we have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.
I’m still not sure why razor blades had to be placed in such a secure case. But I do know no one was going to get at them without tremendous effort. They were securely sealed – which brings to mind our security in Christ. We, too, are securely sealed. No switches, no knives, no banging; nothing can get to us. Suddenly I realize that being locked out had a message for me: “When the case can’t be cracked, give thanks for the seal.”
“What do you believe when you say “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?” That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever adversity he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.” “What do you understand by the providence of God? The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.”
Each year during this season I end up thinking of the value of time. To that end, I re-share with you what I consider to be one of the best commentaries – other than Scripture – on time that I know. This was written by Ann Wells of Laguna Niguel. She penned the column a couple of years after her sister unexpectedly died. (1) .
So when the time was right, when the clock was ready to toll, Jesus was born. In Paul’s words, “God sent his Son…” The word ‘sent’ means sending with a commission to do something, with the person being sent having the right credentials. Jesus, the Son of God, was sent to save us. The purpose, the aim of His coming was our salvation, our health, our wholeness, our peace. It is my firm belief that God still sends His Son, still comes down to us, when the time is right. Though we sometimes feel He’s not concerned or not going to help or come to our aid or answer our prayers, He always comes. And He never comes too early and never too late. In Gal. 3:11-12 Paul put it, “The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him.” (The Message)
He could have made the corn to grow
He could have made the ocean roll
The charm of kittens’ dainty grace,
