Rapid Changes

I read all of the Little House On The Prairie books aloud to my daughters.
My sons only seemed to be interested in the first book..
Covered wagons and dangerous travel peaked their interest.
Stories of gingham and calico, hair ribbons and braids were not fascinating to them.

What did intrigue all of us was the amount of change that Laura Ingalls Wilder experienced.
The railroad made so many things possible in travel and commerce.
Electricity allowed for longer evenings.
Bathrooms in the house instead of outdoors must have been something they never expected.

I read those books and noted the massive change that Laura saw in her lifetime.
However, she was not the only one to experience rapid change.
If you really take a look at your own life, you will see that rapid change as well.
It may give away my age a bit to have done such an exercise, but it was worth it.

Cars did not have seat belts, so consequently you never rode with one pulled across your lap.
Cars had large bucket seats, which allowed three people to sit in the front.
Station wagons had a way-back seat, which meant that you sat there riding backwards.
We had one of those seats in our station wagon and my oldest daughter loved sitting there.

I remember sliced bread.
Wonder Bread came in a plastic bag with colorful dots.
The white bread was neatly sliced.
You simply reached in and pulled out a slice or two to make a sandwich.

I remember something called, Tang, which was orange powder that you mixed with water.
Instead of actual orange juice, this was supposed to be the drink the astronauts used.
Every child who dreamed of being an astronaut drank Tang.
I never dreamed about going into space; I did drink Tang back then, but never liked it.

Our television was black and white.
It only had three channels.
There was no remote control; you had to actually get up to turn it on or change the channel.
The television was really a piece of furniture; the console was much bigger than the TV itself.

I remember when we got our first color television.
I was so excited to see The Wizard of Oz on that TV.
I wanted to actually see the yellow brick road.
I remember it was so yellow.

I had record albums and 45’s.
I had a plastic case that held all of my 45 records.
It was a pretty shade of blue with a handle that turned to lock or unlock the case.
That case could be brought to a friend’s house so that you could listen to records together.

You bought the 45 record for the one main song.
The other side was the B side.
No one really cared about that song very much.
However, you got two songs for the price of one.

I remember when record albums started to include liner notes and song lyrics.
I remember pulling the record out of the sleeve so very carefully.
I had to hold the album in a certain way so that it would not get scratched.
I had a special soft cloth that I wiped over my album before playing it.

I had a small record player, which gradually became a stereo system.
Cassette tapes went with me in the car so I could listen once I began to drive.
It was unthinkable to be able to carry around your entire music library with you.
However, a Walkman, Disc-man, and then iPod seemed to be a natural progression.

What limited music we carried around with us, is now streamed.
We have access to any song that we may want to listen to at any time.
We should be as astounded at the rapid change that we have seen in our lifetime.
It is worth taking note.

One phone in a central location became two phones on each level of the house.
A wall phone with a long cord that entangled you, became a cellular phone too large for a pocket.
Cell phones became so small and resembled the communicator on the old Star Trek show.
Little did we know that in no time at all, our phones would actually be a computer.

Looking it up in an encyclopedia would soon become, Did you Google that?
At the touch of a button, the world is at our fingertips.
We have devices that talk back to us and answer our questions.
We have personal secretaries that take our dictation and instructions through our phones.

We have become Laura Ingalls Wilder.
We have seen technology explode all around us.
We cannot imagine what is on the horizon but we are certain there is much more.
A quote by William Arthur Ward comes to mind.

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

Those dreams and those imaginings come from God.
We are not that smart or that clever on our own.
God allows our minds to expand and innovate.
God allows us to set our minds on something and see it become a reality.

Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:16)

We have the mind of Christ.
One would argue that Jesus did not invent any of the things that we see around us today.
That is too narrow an interpretation.
Whatever ability we have to achieve comes form God and should bring Him glory.

That is our litmus test.
It is not about how rapid we can change and innovate.
It is about how those new things we discover or invent builds up His Kingdom.
How can we use all of the tools at our disposal to share the Gospel with others?

It is not about being first in the race but rather running the race well.
It is not about how many gadgets we can come up with to beat the competition.
It is about how to use those gadgets for God’s glory.
A quote by Martin Luther King Jr. comes to mind.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

It matters.
Things are changing rapidly all around us.
It is quite exciting to think about what might be next.
It is important to remember the One from whom we receive the ability to do anything.

To God be the glory, in all things and in all ways.