The More Things Change... (Friday Devotional)

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

- Joshua 1:9

I spent the first part of this week in my old stomping grounds of Waco for the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting. As excited as I was for the worship services, workshops, and meetups with ministry friends, one thing I was particularly looking forward to was spending some extended time in the city that I called home for 10 years. And so, on the occasions when I had a gap in my schedule, I did some wandering through Waco, driving with no discernible destination in mind just to see what the city looked like 5 years after I moved.

From the interstate, Waco looks like a completely different place than I remembered. The expansion of I-35, which had just begun when we moved to Garland, has long since been completed. Baylor’s new basketball arena towers over an area where there was once little more than an office building, just as its new welcome center looms large over a patch of land which used to have nothing but grass and an IHOP.

Similarly, when I drove through parts of downtown—the area close to the famed silos of Magnolia Market—it was unrecognizable from what I remembered. Once-dilapidated houses are now shiny new AirBnbs. Boutiques and restaurants litter the streets that once struggled to find tenants for their buildings. The closer I was to Magnolia or Baylor, the clearer it was how much had changed in 5 years’ time.

But then I drove a little further, to the parts of Waco where tourists don’t go. I drove through the neighborhood where Lindsey and I lived when we were young and poor, past the old strip malls with their payday lenders and laundromats. I drove through the industrial area, where tire shops and supply stores were plentiful and hotels were not. I drove to the edge of Waco, where the city starts to give way to the neighboring rural towns, and found the same old shabby HEB, Subway, and Bush’s Chicken that had always been there, overshadowed by their bigger, cleaner counterparts on the other side of town. In these areas, it seems, time had stood still for the last 5 years.

As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Newness brings the excitement of novelty even as it also creates the anxiety of uncertainty. Sameness brings a feeling of comfort to some, even as it signals stagnation to others. We don’t want to see constant change in our lives—that would be terrifying and unwieldly—but neither do we want nothing tomorrow to always look like yesterday. We accept and even desire good change, but we want the important things to stay the same.

When God’s people entered the Promised Land after spending decades in the wilderness, they knew things were about to change, and largely for the better. They were going to have their own land now. They were going to establish their own nation. They were going to receive their reward. No more manna; it was time for milk and honey!

But their excitement was tempered by fear. The land was occupied by fearsome enemies they would need to overcome. Their leader, Moses, had died and passed the mantle down to Joshua. The future, though exciting, was uncertain.

So as the people prepared to enter the Promised Land, Joshua reminded them what had not changed: God was with them. While their situation had changed, their Lord had not. While they were undergoing a time of transition, God was the same today as he had been yesterday. Their future was necessarily going to be different than their past, but they had a solid rock to build upon.

The same is true for God’s people today. Like the Israelites of old, we need not fear the future or rebel against changes so long as we recognize what has not changed. Methods are modified, but the gospel is not. Circumstances shift, but our salvation never wavers. Kingdoms rise and fall, but the kingdom of God is eternal.

Be strong and courageous, God’s man told his people, for the Lord is with you wherever you go. So wherever you go, and however different things may look from what you once knew, know that God won’t leave your side. Don’t place your hope in days gone by or in the fortunes of the future—place your hope in the steadfast love of God.