The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

This one is a little longer than my already characteristically long posts but hopefully worth it.

In 1948, Winston Churchill stood before the British House of Commons and, borrowing from an earlier quote, he said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.“

It's amazing how true this is when you begin to look back at all the ebbs of flows of history and realize that, while these are indeed tumultuous times of great crisis, these are not the only tumultuous times of great crisis that have ever been.

John's Gospel account begins with these famous words:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God“ (KJV).

I believe the Word of God is the same solution to the problems that face each generation. Notice I did not say the Gospel answers every question, but it is the solution to every problem.

We are beginning to see that, even as public life begins to open once again, the effects of the COVID-19 crisis will last longer than most of us first imagined. These might be unwanted and unwelcome words because we all wish for all of this to go away.

But while we work through all the issues, the stress, and the emotions connected to this very difficult time, let us learn from the past how we can deal with the present and look to the future. Listen to this . . .

In June of 1951, just one year into the Korean War and six years after the end of World War II, a time of continued immense global unrest, Elton Trueblood wrote these words in the preface to his book, The Life We Prize. They are as true today as they were almost 70 years ago. He says:

“Our reading [of the Bible], in the delusive calm between the second and third phases of the continuing world conflict, tended toward the gospel of personal success and toward popular psychology, especially when combined with a religion designed for comfort. The fact that many of the books on these subjects abound in 'fictitious consolations and spurious compensations' has no, heretofore, hindered their appeal, but now we have come into a sterner time and something of a radically different sort may be welcomed.

No man knows what the future holds in any particular set of events, but every thoughtful person believes that we are destined to live the remainder of our lives in tension and turmoil. Whatever the course of history may be in the next years, it will not be a course of tranquility. Our modern world has developed so much animosity, so much justifiable fear, so much open conflict, that there is no peace. If the present tragic conflict were, by some developments now unforeseen, to come to a sudden end, it is reasonably certain that other conflicts, perhaps of even more tragic proportions, will arise. We are in the monsoon and we must weather it out. Instead of pining for calmer days, the way of wisdom is to learn to live realistically in such a time of strain.”

Wow! It’s as if Trueblood were alive today.

The problems facing the first half of the twentieth century are not entirely different than the problems we continue to face today. Keep in mind that most of the men who fought in World War II would have been born to the generation who lived through World War I and survived the Spanish Flu of 1918. (At that time, it was the young, healthy, and able-bodied men who were most vulnerable to the disease.)

Similarly, many of those who fought in Vietnam were the offspring of those who fought in World War II. You get the point . . . There was life after death!

The world is in a different kind of war today. At least it feels that way . . . and the world seems to constantly sit on the precipice of war. We are in distress. Nations speak out threats against one another. There is injustice, persecution, even genocide, and mass displacement of native people groups. There is protesting, fighting, and dying in the streets. Political corruption and collusion runs rampant both in the United States and across the globe. Religious apathy has settled among many once-devout believers and a general anti-God sentiment is becoming more common in an increasingly secular mainstream society.

Churches with beautiful buildings and state-of-the-art facilities and technology have become places where gatherings, both large and small, take place every week while so many lives remain unreached, unchanged, unaltered, untransformed.

What we can learn from history is that every generation faces a “unique“ set of challenges that really aren't that “unique“ at all. Somewhere down the line of history, something else similar in kind has happened along the way.

“Change,“ as they say, “is the only constant,“ yet “they“ also say that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.“

As the world around us continues to change, our anchor holds to the One who remains the same. He is the One who was, is, and is to come. He was there way back then, He is here with us now, and He will be in our future.

With great confidence in the God who was “in the beginning,“ who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One in whose name we overcome –– with Him and through Him, we can endure all things.

The same God who was with the children of Israel in Egypt was the same God who caused the sun to stand still and the same God who brought manna in the morning and quail in the evening was the same God who brought water from a rock was the same God who met Moses on the mountain was the same God who met Daniel in the Lion's Den was the same God who caused Jonah to be swallowed by a big fish was the same God who was born in Bethlehem was the same God who descended like a dove was the same God who was nailed to a cross was the same God who got up from the grave was the same God who ascended into Heaven was the same God who swept into an Upper Room like a strong, mighty, rushing wind on the Day of Pentecost is the same God who caused blind eyes to see and deaf ears to hear and the lame to walk and the dead to live again. He's the same God that you and I can call on today. Right now, even! And the same God that did it way back then can do it for you today. No matter what you're facing in your life and no matter what this world has to face, He is the same God; He was in the beginning and He will be at the end of time and throughout all of eternity!

He's never lost a battle and He never will!