An Anchor in an Everchanging Sea
Our lives are constantly changing. Every day we are a little bit older. Things that seemed as if they would last forever are but a distant memory. Sleepless nights walking a colicky baby, helping a young child (or not so young teenager) with the school subject they seemed destined to never understand, shuttling children to doctor’s appointment, sports practice, their friend’s house, and a part-time job: all seemed like an inescapable purgatory. But then you blink, and you wish you had one more night to sacrifice sleep and rock that baby in your arms.
In the everchanging seasons of life, there are certain things that remain constant, or should. Faith in Christ and life in the community of the faithful. Sadly, even this seems an ineffective anchor for many who claim Christ as Savior. They change churches the way some people change shoes, always seeking a better fit or the latest fashion. Faith ebbs and flows. It is the most important thing in their life, until it is not, but maybe in another season they will suddenly desire to be on fire for Christ again.
The psalms do not change, but I change every year as I reread them. The Bible’s teachings have not changed, but I have been gradually changed by them. Even if certain things remain unchangeable, they are surrounded by people and a world that is constantly changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Change is not always a bad thing. Sanctification is a change, for the good. Reformation in the Church is a change, and we thank God for it. Gaining wisdom changes us, even if it is acquired in the school of hard knocks. We still thank the Holy Spirit for it, because he is our teacher, even in that school.
We journey through the world as in a boat on the sea. The wind and waves, the colors and currents, are constantly changing all around us, carrying us to new places we have never visited before. In such a world, we need an anchor, one that will bite deep and hold firm, an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. Christ is the anchor for everchanging people in an everchanging world.
You will not find security anywhere else. Children grow up and move away. Health fails, strength atrophies, memories fade, the house that we loved (or loved to complain about) will eventually no longer be our home. If you think your security is in your marriage, your children, your workout plan and diet regimen, your professional success, or anything you have accomplished or acquired, you are deceiving yourself. Come with me to visit a Memory Care unit, and tell me again how unshakeable the life you have built is.
Some people do not appreciate the sameness and consistency of our liturgy, but that rhythm and repetition is purposeful and designed. It speaks to our needs—not what we think are our needs, our felt needs, but the real needs of souls living in a sin-cursed world where no one is untouched by evil and no one escapes alive. God calls, God cleanses, God consecrates, God communes, and God commissions: again and again and again, week after week. The rhythm of worship does not change; we do. We are changed by it, changed through it, and conformed more and more to it. The rhythm of the Lord’s Day becomes the rhythm of life, and it serves as an unshakeable, unbreakable anchor to the Real, the transcendent, the One who is Truth who lies behind and holds together every changing thing in this world.