PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Faithfulness or Fickleness?”
By: Ron Woodrum
Now here was a bothersome headline awhile back in USA Today-“Old Faithful Gets Fickle”. Really? The paper was reporting that the famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park was changing-and not for the better! As long as most tourists could remember that 140 foot tower of steam had erupted approximately every 66 minutes faithfully for years. But something was not right. The eruption predicted or scheduled for 12:11 pm didn’t occur until 12:18 pm. One predicted for 2:46 pm jumped the gun at 2:38 pm. So tourists counting on “Old Faithful’s faithfulness” might go for a hot dog, saying to themselves “I’ve got ten minutes” and end up missing the entire thing! The problem? They believe that underground shifts caused by minor earthquakes, and vandalism by visitors who have thrown everything from chicken bones to underwear in the geyser hole, has caused the changes. Yellowstone Geologists are saying that there’s a good chance that five years from now, five days, or five hundred years from now, Old Faithful could become totally unpredictable or maybe not even erupt with any regularity at all! What if “Old Faithful” becomes “Old Fickle”? What do you do when Old Faithful suddenly isn’t? We have all experienced the bewilderment when someone or something that has been our “Old Faithful” suddenly becomes “Unfaithful”. Perhaps a job you depended on disappeared; or your company folded; or your mate became unfaithful and left; your parents marriage disappeared; or a relationship you counted on was pulled out from under you. Maybe your Church let you down; or some spiritual leader disappointed you. Maybe your body, one that had be faithfully healthy, has suddenly become anything but dependable. Whatever it is, it hurts when “Old Faithful becomes Old Fickle!”. It leaves us bewildered and unsure of ourselves and our future. Jeremiah knew all about such experiences. He wrote in Lamentations 3:19-22 “I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall, I well remember them and my soul is cast down within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘the Lord is my portion therefore I will wait for Him’ ”
Jeremiah’s environment was wasted. Jerusalem, the anchor of Jewish identity, was completely destroyed. That is what he has been lamenting in Lamentations. His feelings were all over the place! Afflictiion, bitterness, a downcast soul. He was supposed to be God’s man-God’s rock in a shifting situation. He could not even stablize himself. Then he reminds himself there is hope. When everything around is shifting sand God can be trusted to be faithul…To be stable…To be trustworthy…To be your unmoveable Rock! That realization caused Thomas Chisolm to write the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness in 1925. Chisolm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky. At the age of 27 he accepted Christ as his Saviour. At the age of 36 he surrendered to the Gospel ministry. After a year, due to failing health, he had to give up the ministry. He spent the rest of his days selling insurance and living a fairly modest life. He wrote later in life, “My income has not been large at any time in my life due to impaired health, which has followed me all the days of my life. But the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God has provided my care for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.” So he wrote,
“Great is Thy Faithfulnes, Oh God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with thee
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not
As thou hast been, thou forever will be!
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Morning by Morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great Is Thy Faithfulness-Lord unto me!”
This is the time to explore the awesome depths of those Bible words you’ve sung so many times. “Great is Thy Faithfulness”…even to His unfaithful Children. Your Lord will never abandon you-never divorce you-never desert you-never lay you off-never be too busy for you-never once disappoint you.The most Powerful Person in the universe is totally committed to loving you unconditionally. Old Faithfuls aren’t always-EXCEPT FOR ONE-HE ALWAYS WILL BE RIGHT ON TIME-EVERYTIME-ALL THE TIME! HE IS ABLE TO MAKE FAITHFUL SERVANTS OUT OF UNFAITHFUL CLAY AS WELL!