Is Everything Semi-Permanent?
     When I worked for a gold mine in Nevada, I remember talking to the Pit Superintendent about a large parking area they were going to have to move because of the way the mine was developing.
     They used this parking area for the huge dump trucks, as a service and maintenance area, and a place where the powder room was kept. (Not that one!)  The powder room was actually a small building housing blasting caps, det-cord, fuses and small explosive charges.
     As mining operations shifted, this area was getting rained on by rocks more and more from blasting operations above it. I guess they finally got tired of replacing windshields, and having their service trucks look like they just came from a Nebraska hail storm.  Or was it the holes in the roof of the powder room???
     That parking area had been there since the mine had opened long before I began working there. It was often referred to as ‘The Permanent Parking Ditch’.
     When I asked the Superintendent about them moving this parking area he simply stated: “Everything Is Semi-Permanent!”
     As I have thought about this statement over the past twenty plus years, ‘ner a truer statement could he have uttered.’
     As my life progresses, I have come to understand just how many things are ‘semi-permanent’. The fact is – change happens.
     Some changes are met with joy, excitement and enthusiasm, while others are met with fear, anxiety and resistance.
     When I was a lot younger, I though I could do just about any thing, and I tried a few. Now that I’m a lot older, I find that I can’t, and now I’m paying for those things I did do.
     The world around us is changing. Our lives are changing. Technology is even changing the way we change.
     Change is inevitable. In Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, King Solomon tells us of change. There is really nothing we can do to stop the changes we will see in this life. We can accept them, or reject them and try to fight them.
     The best thing we can do is to acknowledge the changes and try to adjust, adapt and make the best of them.
     Whether it’s changing from a typewriter to a computer, or moving to a different home, or completely changing your wardrobe and look – change happens.  The world keeps on spinning and things keep on a changing.
     But there is one thing we know that doesn’t change – The LORD!  Hebrews 18:8 reminds us: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  In 1 Peter 1:24-25 we read: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
     With the unchanging Word of the Lord, there comes changes we should all look forward to. The first being found in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where Paul tells us “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
     Paul is saying that when we turn our lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are transformed, changed, into new creations. We are on a journey changing from what we used to be to becoming more like what God created us for. We are becoming more Christ like.
     The other change we should be looking forward to is found in Revelation 21:1-5 where we read about an new heaven and a new earth, and the New Jerusalem prepared for God’s people.
     A new place and time where “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21:4-5
     As things change and as we change, we can change in faith and grace knowing we are changing in the likeness and glory of the Lord.
     It’s our choice how we change. We can change in the likeness of Christ and enjoy the newness He gives us, or we can change along with the world and – miss out on being made new.
     Yes, everything is semi-permanent, except the end. How will you change?