Unchanging

 January 13, 2023

Most of the grandkids were home for this weekend’s Friday overnighter. As has been our habit for more than twenty years, we prayed together before bedtime, but knowing that four of them (including a boyfriend and a girlfriend) will be off to college Sunday makes the prayer time poignant for me. They are growing up in a world vastly different from the one I grew up in. Every generation has its challenges, and we old folks are often tempted to wish their world was more like ours. I suppose our parents thought the same thing. 

We forget that God is in control and they were given to us for such a time as this, and that our job was and is to prepare them for a world none of us has yet seen. How do we prepare young people for such an ever- and fast-changing world? That’s a question that has been bouncing around in my head, and I think I know the answer.

We prepare them for a constantly changing world by teaching them how to connect to an unchanging God. “Jesus Christ,” the Bible says, “is the same, yesterday, today, and forever,” meaning that he alone provides the stability they need to face life’s uncertainties. I’ve been thinking about that “connecting.” So much of it is a matter of the mind; disciplining our thought life so that Jesus Christ—who he is, what he did for us, and what he expects of us—becomes our default. It’s not easy. Sin has rendered nearly everything else in life as our default. When not thinking about anything in particular, or when we face trouble, crisis, or merely anxiety, we default to all sorts of things; negative thinking, anger, depression, alcohol or drugs. Or we default to more work, a frenetic pace, hobbies, religion, or mindless social media. 

It takes effort to bring every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:4-5), but it’s worth it. Repentance is foundational. It simply means changing how we think. I’m working on it. Like any skill, it takes practice. Maybe someday it will become as effortless as Jeff Beck playing guitar or Yo Yo Ma the cello. Until then, I keep working at it, and do whatever I can to show my grandkids how to do it. Because their future depends on it.