Man’s Changeability and God’s Constancy
Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva
On January 20, 2009, what in ages past was improbable finally happened; the world stood still in amazement as the United States of America unprecedentedly installed an African- American as her 44th president. President Barack Obama foremost stood on the platform of change, then rode upon the winds of change, and brought about the tide of transformation. Today, a hopeful America looks forward with a renewed faith in what her inspiring leader promised to bring into the White House. Clearly in America’s case, hope is akin to change and vice versa.
People have varying response to change. On the one hand, there are those who openly welcome it, adjust to it, and work with it until it yields the blessings of new things. On the other hand, there are also those who shun it, despise it, and resist it until they finally settle for the usual and ordinary. Where we fall in the two categories largely determines where we are today.
Closer to home, our nation has seen two people power revolutions, a foiled one, and a series of coup attempts. In each struggle, the impetus was always the clamor for change. Tired of the cyclical evils of tyranny, corruption, and poverty, people dared to welcome the uncertainties of an unknown future rather than to settle with the certainty of a deplorable present. Unfortunately, however, our people’s hope was only dashed, time and again, when the desired change was eventually changed to suit the new players’ interests and plans. Change, therefore, is only as good as its originator.
Change is inevitable. As former US president John F. Kennedy put it, “Change is the law of life,” and rightly so because the only thing constant in the world is change. Yes, we change, whether we like it or not.
Change is inclusive. No one can stand in the way of a raging bull and not get affected in the process. No one can say that he is exempt from the changes that happen around him.
Whether it is a leaf or a comet falling, we are touched by change, known or unknown to us.
As American novelist Ellen Glasgow worded it, however, “all change is not growth as all movement is not forward.” I must admit that there is one kind of change that I am most particularly wary about ~ the corrupt politicians’ shameless moves to change the Philippine Constitution.
I am wary about the “Charter change” or cha-cha that vested-interest people are obstinately espousing because the central motivation behind it is essentially dubious and the timing highly suspect. It does not take a genius to see through the superfluous rhetoric and public grandstanding of the cha-cha proponents; “term extension” stubbornly slips through their carefully sugarcoated words no matter how hard they try to hide it.
Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill was right on target when he said that there is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction. Change is influential; it basically can make or unmake people and nations.
But even change is not beyond the sovereignty of God. Given the uncertainty of life in the ever turning wheel of change, man may find stability and security in the Almighty who introduced Himself as “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14, KJV). By His Name He means that He is all that we could ever need in this changeable life. God is constant in His character.
God is constant in His promises. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19,NIV). “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8, NASB). He said, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11, NASB).
God is constant in His Being. “For I, the LORD, do not change…” (Malachi 3:6, NASB). He is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, KJV) and there is no shadow of turning with Him (James 1:17, NASB).
Man’s changeability pales in the grandeur of God’s constancy. To call upon His Name, acknowledge Him in all we do, and submit to His Lordship is to welcome His mighty work in our lives. A personal relationship with the Great I AM guarantees that, even in this fickle world, nothing shall be too hard for us to do.