Everything is Changing

Written on June 18, really early in the morning
When the internet was inexplicably down

Tonight is a pensive time. One, I am growing fat. two, I realise that so many things are changing in my life, in this world, that there is really nothing I can place my hand on (metaphorically) and say, “forever, always”.

Except God. But even God can seem so far away sometimes…

As people, we know for a fact that life changes. Years go by and time causes you to flow in a different direction, sometimes it seems to come to a dead end or a particularly twisty and difficult part that you’d really rather not go across. But for streams, there is only one direction - forward. And I guess that’s the only thing certain about time - it goes on. Whether you choose to cling on to something you cannot keep or a relationship that has run its course, other people will continue to flow with the current and eventually, you must too.

I know all this, but today the whole reality of things changing and people changing just descended on me bit by bit like a fine layer of dust and it makes me so sad. The fact that there is nothing I can do to stop it. I’m changing too, realizing that the world is so much more complex and less sugar-coated than I am comfortable with. How do people cope with this?

Your friend today, your enemy tomorrow. Sweet words in the morning, curses in the nighttime. A beautiful sunrise and a menacing sunset. Millionaire this week, bankrupt the next. I could go on and on…

I realise that all those examples are ‘positiveànegative’, which is biased. Change can be for the better too. It all depends on how an individual chooses to face it. With courage and faith and hope, or with fear and shrinking and disgust and denial? There is one thing that can never be denied a human:

Choice.
(My rational mind reminds me that there are some cases in which people have hardly any or no choice, like murder, rape and so on, but let’s stick to the normal scenarios of life and leave those discussions to a more jolly time.)

Change can break us…or strengthen us. Change can cause us to become bitter…or understanding. Change can make us crippled or weak…or cause us to develop perseverance and wisdom that we never knew we could have.

Of course I get rather nervous and worried when I think of the changes that will happen or could happen to affect myself, my family, my friends; anything that has to do with me. Even my country, my world. But with it comes an assurance that life is not random, that there is meaning behind huge (and even little, personal) tragedy, and that while some things may remain a mystery in this world it will all become clear in the next. If that makes me a dreamer or a sentimentalist, so be it. Rationalists and thinking atheists live on the quicksand of their own beliefs and theories about the world and their place in it. When something happens that they can’t explain, where will they be?

Some people say that they will not believe in something that cannot be proven or seen. But true Realities cannot be seen or proven, can they? Can truth be proven to exist? But we all know that there are things such as truth, honour, love, justice and these were not just codes that people made up; they are part of the human make-up. They are as much part of us as our XX / XY chromosomes. Rather, people used these universal truths as the basis of their beliefs and the cords that interweave and strengthen it.

Behind every magnificient structure, there is a creator and a master planner. (Unless you believe, like some, that the pyramids were made by aliens from another planet. Even then, you still have a creator, only one from outer space, that’s all.) Why not man? Why not earth? Why not plants and animals and the sea and the sky?

That is why I believe God exists.

Thus, belief in God & Jesus Christ as His son leads to complete belief in the Bible leads to reading that He knows how many hairs there are on my head leads to thinking, if He knows even that detail which I (owner of the hair) don’t even know, wouldn’t He be concerned about my future and have the best purposes in mind for me and those I love?

I end with a platitude:
Knowing Jesus is on my boat helps me to let go of my safe rock which I cling to like a limpet, (and it’s warm and safe and comfy) and embark on the sea of change, knowing that wherever my vessel goes, it’s in the hands of a master steerer.

I realise this is a rambling post. I apologise for my inability to stay with one main idea, because somehow or other my (more serious) writings are like a float - they just won't stay down!