Yesterday I stopped at a gas station and went in for some bottled tea. I was parched. At the check-out counter, the young clerk ran up my purchase and when I took out credit card, she guided me, “Now, just put that card, chip forward, over that symbol.” I smiled at her, appreciating her care and guidance though it wasn’t necessary. Then she looked at me and went on, “I bet a lot of things have changed in your day.” I looked around me. No, she was talking to me. I wondered how old she thought I was, but then honesty thumped me, and I had to admit that a lot has changed in my 74 years. Then she said, “Did you used to write checks?” That’s when I realized just how old I was. I smiled and said, “Yep, still do.”
The world is constantly changing. Seems like every week something new comes along that I have to learn how to incorporate into my life. I remember when we didn’t have computers among the masses. I remember only having land lines and even only having four numbers in our phone number and having party lines. I remember when women wore hats to church (I still do; like the check thing, some habits are hard for me to break). I remember when color television came out. Oh, that’s one of the great things about age as long as one can remember – there’s lots to keep track of that has changed.
Last night as I settled down for evening prayer, I thought of the helpful and chatty clerk at the gas station. I admitted to the LORD that the world is full of change, but then I realized that while the externals in my world are a whirl in flux, the LORD is the same, “Yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). I settled into the comfort of the LORD’s power and presence always and everywhere and offered my praise first and then my thanks. I ended with the plea that the LORD would remain with me and the comfort came like a blanket pulled over my shoulder.
As we journey in Christ, guided by the Spirit, we will find many new things that challenge us, but we have the surety of the LORD’s power and presence at work in our world and within us. “Remain in me as I remain in you” (John 15). We will be called to change often, to adapt. We may even be called to extreme change for the sake of our journey, to a conversion or a re-conversion, to orient ourselves more closely to our LORD. A wonderful gift for our journey is our memory – remembering all the times the LORD has been with us through the scary changes.
Until tomorrow, let us all love well.
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