Demands and Desires
We’re told one constant in our lives is change: change in knowledge, change in styles, change in circumstances. This week a new and improved iPhone hit the market and we witnessed long lines waiting to capture this latest tech device. At the same time near Wall Street a park bulged with angry protesters demanding change, some change, almost any change.
We’re told one constant in our lives is change: change in knowledge, change in styles, change in circumstances. This week a new and improved iPhone hit the market and we witnessed long lines waiting to capture this latest tech device. At the same time near Wall Street a park bulged with angry protesters demanding change, some change, almost any change.
These two events reflect different methods of dealing with the existential uneasiness in our world. One strategy keeps us manic, spinning plates of technology and diversion and the other allows the angst to surface as anger and frustration that things are not the way they should be. And they are not.
This past week in Genesis I was reminded that we no longer live in the garden. Today we live in a world cursed by the sin of the first Adam where our labor now fights the “thorns and thistles.” We don’t like that reality. We seek to avoid it with machines and marches. We demand a life that returns to our desire in that garden paradise.
The road to the peace of the garden is available, but not by machines or marches. Jesus spoke of a narrow way that leads to life (John 7:14) but warns that few will find it. He describes it as abundant life (John 10:10) but suggests that the path is one of surrender and submission. In a world of change, God never changes. (Malachi 3:6) He offers life as we discover and experience Him as the still and unchanging center of reality. We find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart. (Jeremiah 29:13) But to do that we will need to carve out a quiet place, a still center, where we connect daily with the unchanging reality in our chaotic world.
And as we do, hope rises in anticipation of His promise that one day all things will be made new. The story isn’t over and it ends in that garden. (Revelation 22:1-4)
Gwynne Johnson
Gwynne Johnson currently serves on the Board of Entrust, Inc., an international education and training mission where she authored the Entrust curriculum, Developing a Discerning Heart. She recently served as Co-Chair of the training project, Christian Women in Partnership, Russia and as Senior Director of Women's Ministry at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Gwynne has a M.A. in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She currently lives in Huntsville, Texas with her husband of 58 years, Don. She works part-time in her daughter and granddaughter's bakery "The Best Box Ever," where she gets paid in cookies.
