HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED...

          One popular saying nowadays is, "My how things have changed." This is normally presented by an older gentleman who is leaned back in his chair, hands folded neatly on his chest or belly, while he observes something very odd or different from when he was a young one coming up. I've typically seen them as good men in faded blue overalls with a clean checkered or plain white shirt underneath. His boots are broken in and well-used. The hat on his head carries the insignia of a farm supply store, fertilizer company, or his favorite brand of vehicle (Chevrolet). In his eyes are the signs of many years of hard work, on his skin are the proofs of such toil. This in my mind is the man I think of when I hear that saying.

           While things like technology and culture change, most of us tend to shrug this off and decide the comment is just old-fashioned. That those old men are just on their way out and to not listen to them. Today, we are progressive, today, we are smarter, healthier, and more concerned about others. And yet, I was reading a passage in Jeremiah the other day that shows how little humanity actually does change.

Jeremiah chapter 7 is a must read. It's not exactly Moses-parts-the-Red-Sea kind of action, but there are several points about how we actually haven't changed at our core, even though external things change all the time. In verses 8-11, God basically says that His people do whatever they please, whenever they please. They worship other gods, the Baals, the Asherah and then come into His house, declaring His name, and saying, "We are delivered!"

          I just wonder if we substituted what the people of God were doing with things we do; let's try.
- His people do whatever they please, whenever they please. They get drunk, slander and hate, overeat, and then come into His house, declaring His name, and saying, "We are delivered!"

          Today, we are progressive, today, we are smarter, healthier, and more concerned about others?

          Too often we overlook valuable lessons from the past because we just do not know our own history; as an individual, as a nation, as a person of faith. Jeremiah was sent with a message to remind the people of their past, and what was to come if they didn't learn from the mistakes of those who had gone before. I wish there were more young men and women that would take an hour or two of their time and sit beside their grandfather or grandmother, or just their old neighbor down the street. We really cannot understand how much we can learn from them. That even though the cars are faster, the tvs brighter, and the phones smaller, we are all really just people caught up in the ebb and flow of this world.

          I'm not a Bon Jovi fan, but he modernized an old saying that will leave you with a reminder about how people really are.

The more things change the more they stay the same
The same sunrise, it's just another day
If you hang in long enough they say you're comin' back
Just take a look, we're living proof and baby that's a fact
You know the more things change the more they stay the same
Never and forever just keep comin' back again
Don't hold out for tomorrow or hold onto yesterday