Thought for Today
Isaiah 43:19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Psalm 33:2 Praise the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
Luke 5:36 "No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
Like many others, we are in the midst of ‘spring cleaning.’ This year, after our being in New England almost 12 years, Greta has decided to include our basement in the cleaning. She is also including all the upstairs closets. It is amazing to see the ‘wealth’ of stuff we have amassed and then squirreled away these past 12 years. Being trained as an engineer, I have developed an equation: Useless stuff to be saved = 110% of available storage space. I admit, the percentage may need to be adjusted upward.
One of the characteristics of our society seems to be an obsession with “out with the old, in with the new.” Without any questioning of whether or not the new is better than the old, we consign the old to the refuse dump of history. As Greta and I purge our basement and closets of all the “old,” I am amazed at the percentage of that “old” which is electronic in nature. We have old computers, old cell phones, old electronic games and more than a few items and cords we cannot even identify.
Surely some enterprising social scientist, some sociologist or other researcher has studied the relationship between human aging and becoming overwhelmed by technology and technological advances. We think of ourselves as living in a golden age of technology. We do. However, technology is as old as humanity. Technology encompasses the development of agriculture, hunting implements, metallurgy and all of the accoutrements of human society. Certainly, when one of our earliest ancestors developed the first stone spear point, one of his elders complained about his abandoning ‘the way we’ve always done that.’ When the earliest blacksmiths began to hammer carbon into the iron ingots, surely the elder blacksmiths complained about all the ‘newfangled technology.’
I can remember when Greta and I were first married and we visited our parents’ homes. All of the digital displays on their devices, microwaves, televisions, etc., would be blinking. Trying to learn how to set the clocks seemed overwhelming. At least they were forward thinking enough to have purchased and learned how to use the devices! Our parents . . . and now many of us who are ‘of an age,’ find ourselves becoming overwhelmed by all of the technological changes. Can we calculate the inflection point, the age at which such changes overwhelm people? Heretical as it sounds to my engineer’s ears, there may actually be things which cannot be quantified, which cannot be captured and described with an equation.
Yesterday I wrote about 4-letter words and profanity. The inflection point of our becoming overwhelmed by technology is not limited by 4-letter words. There are 3-letter and 5-letter words involved. Words like ‘new’ and ‘change’ are operative in our relationship with technology. At some age, at some point, those 3-letter and 5-letter words also seem to become profane.
Qoheleth, the Prophet of Ecclesiastes wrote, “1:9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” He obviously never had a smartphone, never bought a new car and tried to figure the use for all the buttons and levers or what all those strange figures were meant to represent.
Even Jesus said, “John 13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Our behavior often suggests that the newness of that idea has overwhelmed many. But was it really a “new commandment?” Leviticus 19:18 suggests it might have been less ‘new’ than it seemed.
Our relationship with our Creator God is not new. Thankfully, since Genesis 1:1 the love of God and the wonder of God have existed all around us. Equally thankfully, periodically there have been those who remind us of God, God’s love and God’s grace. Hopefully, by now, you are humming “Jesus Loves Me” and remembering “this I know, ‘cause the Bible tells me so.”
Stay safe, embrace the new and preserve some of the old, trust God,
Pastor Ray