Trading Saviors

Breaking, the tears come falling down
I’m laid bare before you now
The worst of me exposed
The shame, too much to bear.

And I’m in need of a savior
Oh, I’m in need of a savior
Well, what do you say?

Hurt and hurting we sit
Our fallibility seeping through
Our laughter turned to silence
Our tender hearts, hardened stone.

And I’m in need of a savior
Oh, I’m in need of a savior
Well, what do you say?

Perspectives, sin, our wounds
Cracked idols, the image of God
Crumbling back to dust
Beneath salvation’s pressure

And you’re in need of a savior
Oh, you’re in need of a savior
Well, it seems you can’t save

How do we move forward
When the wrongs push us down?
How do we love
When trust’s been broken?
How to look to God’s redemption?

Oh, we’re in need of a Savior
Yes, we’re in need of a Savior
And there’s only one Savior
Oh, there’s only one Savior
Jesus, what do You say?

The Sure Thing

“Changes come. Turn my world around,” sings Karin Bergquist of the folk-alternative band Over The Rhine. I love this lyric, this song. Perhaps because the title captures my life experience: “Changes Come.”

Jobs switch. Friends move. Parents retire. Dreams fade. Minds change. This is a problem for someone like me who longs for stability, safety, certainty. But the older I get the more I experience instability, insecurity, uncertainty. Nothing stays the same. This constant motion stunts my continuous efforts to stop movement. Life itself seems against me.

I long for something sure, something that will remain. To my dismay, I fail to find this in a job, in a person, in an emotional state of mind.

Pondering this frustration on my drive home from work, I realized, though, that to be alive is to change. Amoebas, algae, trees, flowers, grass, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, dogs, cats. They all change, growth to decay, a state of constant flux.

And so it is with humans. We come forth in birth, mature, and wither away. Physical changes over which we have no control. Not to mention our emotional and spiritual development. For those of us in Christ, salvation involves transformation, changing from the old creature to the new.

So change isn’t necessarily bad. It’s good that weather patterns change to bring rain to land withered by drought. It’s good that babies learn to walk, adolescents become independent, adults grow in character. It’s good that believers learn to love like Christ.

But still change remains the constant. How then can I, and those like me, find peace in a world of perpetual motion?

The Bible writers knew about change. They knew the struggle to live in a world where nothing was sure. And they offered us hope, the only sure thing: Jesus Christ. In this world of shifting currents, I can find stability the arms of One.

When I feel rattled by change, I find solace in His presence. I remember His promises. He will never leave. He will never alter His opinion of me. He will never change His heart of love, compassion, mercy.

While I can celebrate the good changes and grieve the painful ones, I’m discovering the secret of being content in both. Jesus lives and yet does not change. He “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13:8). While my understanding and experience of Him may change, His character remains the same. His covenant of love is my constant.

And His promised return fuels my hope. Soon He will take us to a home where we will live forever, a permanent address. We will live with people who will never leave. We will feel unceasing joy, receive unending love, enjoy unchanging peace.

For those seeking such a world, let us turn to our Savior, who gave us Himself and the trustworthy promise of His return and a heavenly home of continual bliss.

So as Karin closes her song, I echo “Jesus come. Bring the whole thing down. Jesus come.”