Ravi Zacharias has talked about this topic before also citing Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher who said you never step in the same river twice. The water is always changing. His student Cratylus said you don’t even step in it once. You are changing as the river is changing. As much of a paradox as I think that last statement is, I would like to touch on a truth of a changing world.
Everything changes it seems. Here in America, we’re about to change who will lead our country and we’re liable to see several other changes as well. As I go through school, I find some of my views changing on various issues. I have a problem with allergies often and so I find myself changing from sneezing constantly one day to being fine the next. My own emotional reactions to myself and what is going on are in a constant state of flux.
Thus, how I wake up in the morning is no guarantee of how I’ll go to bed at night. The world I wake up to is rarely the same one I go to sleep in. Something has changed throughout the day and usually something that I consider significant. Some of my relationships or some of my opinions have changed so that the world is different.
I can also think of how things are for people who have to relate to me and I to them. Could the way my roommate and I interact change often based on our different moods? Could it be safe to ask me a question one day and unsafe to do so the next? Could it be that one day I’ll want to have a friend spend time with me and the next day I don’t?
Everything is changing.
I find something when I pray at night, and for me, I’m a nighttime guy with prayer. Prayer is the last thing I do before I turn out the lights. I find the first thing I am usually saying when I come to God is that I am thankful that he is constant. God is one that never changes. He is outside of space and time and is eternally acting. This is so mind-boggling to me. This is a concept I find myself wondering about. In my view, God is viewing my birth right now, my wedding someday, my children being born, my death one day, my being in his presence in Heaven, all in one eternal now.
God and time. It’s such a fascinating topic to think about and I’m still thinking about it and when I have clearer and more certain thoughts on it, I’ll probably write about it.
I’m thankful though that he doesn’t change. When I come to him, he is the same. He is the foundation that the whole world rests on us. You don’t have to worry if God is different than when you approached him yesterday. He’s not. You don’t have to worry if they’ll be a different God tomorrow. There won’t be. He is the one constant that you can always turn to.
That means you can always rely on him.
Think about the attributes of God and see how incredible he is and realize that that will never change. Nations will rise and fall. You will live and die. He will be there always though. Throughout endless ages, God will remain the same. When all the world is collapsing around you, you can always look and realize God is constant. He is not changing.
Whatever is going on in your world, keep that in mind. You’re changing, which isn’t always bad, but he is not. You can trust in him forever. He is the rock.
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