Problems of Permanence

It seems we have a problem with permanence these days. We live in an ever-changing, topsy-turvy world. What was good today will be tomorrow's evil. Morals change faster than gas prices. But it's not just attitudes, emotions, and public opinions which change. People change, too. Churches change. That which once was is no more, and that which is will never be again.

Ours is a pencil world. We write things in pencil, knowing we'll just change them later. And to that end, we lay up a stock of excuses to go with our pencils. It lets us live free of commitments. It gives us the ability to abandon fixed points of our lives whenever we get a better offer. Church is having a rough time? Erase it and write in a new one. Marriage no longer making you deliriously happy? Erase your spouse and pencil in a new one.

We seem to have lost the ability to write in ink. Ink can't be erased. (Sure, they used to make so-called ink erasers, but all they ever did was make holes in your paper.) As Christians, we need to regain the ability to use ink, to commit. Stay in a job, stay in a marriage, stay in a church, stay in a friendship. We should have a sort of permanence about us, a certain reliability. We can't run when we face hard times; we double down and do what it takes to stay.

Our God is such a God. He never changes, never lies, never changes His mind. He's a God of ink, a permanent Savior of unending, unfailing love. Let's be like Him. Let's be ink people in a pencil world.