I’m dating myself here. For those of you who are much younger than me, Stevie Nicks is a singer/songwriter best known as the front woman for Fleetwood Mac. She is a “spiritual” person…..but probably not a serious Christian. I recently went to a show by a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. It was a great a show. They played “Landslide” and a lyric from that song has been haunting me ever since.
I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m gettin’ older, too.
The song is about people coming and going in her life. It is about change and growth. It is not about God. But, there is truth in it.
My life, and yours, is a complicated construct. Like a sculptor, each of us builds this construct around a core. That core is usually a person, often a string of persons. I am blessed with a wife who has stuck with me for almost 50 years. And I can say that I’ve built my life around her. Moreso now than when I was younger. Cindy has metastatic breast cancer. Change is coming……hopefully not soon. And I am afraid.
I have a friend who has recently walked this path. He is a committed Buddhist and I am pretty sure that, these days, he is building his life around Buddhism. At least, he is using it to lean on.
As for me, when I am in trouble, I go to the Bible. And, the teaching of the Bible is often repeated and is crystal clear. My physical life is transient. Cindy’s physical life is transient. Jesus is constant. Jesus is eternal.
I am to build my life around Jesus.
So, I will build around Jesus………without giving up on Cindy.
The beauty of building around Jesus is constancy. He was, is, and always will be. There is nothing that I can do…….or fail to do….there is nothing that can happen in my world….there is nothing that can befall the people that I love…. that will overcome the strength of the core that Jesus gives me.
I’m still afraid…….of the changes that are coming. But, I will trust God.
I’m still getting older……….getting closer to my death.
But, I’m also getting bolder.
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Paul explaining the constancy of Jesus, Phillipians 4:12-13, ESV