Heraclitus (500 BC) is commonly accepted as the speaker of the aphorism ‘The only constant in life is change.’ I didn’t know him personally, but he was pretty spot-on, in my humble opinion. Most notable among changes, are the unpleasant, annoying kind and close to the top of that list are computer upgrades. Have you ever noticed that no one tells you what that action involves or how many headaches it’s going to cause with your user experience? And we really don’t know who ‘they’ are or if their motives are even on the up-and-up. Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes, the familiar evaporates overnight, suspiciously synced with the arrival of the now-dreaded message ‘Your update is complete.’ (I don’t remember ordering an update. I was quite content with how things were.) I feel like dusting my computer for fingerprints! OK, I’ll stop whinging now and listen to Heraclitus.
But now I think I have a better grasp of the Jews’ reaction to the message of Jesus. He disregarded the complacent comfort of culture’s ‘users.’ And not just that, he upset a lot of affluent apple carts while providing apple carts to the down and out, the poor, the sick, the needy. One group was aghast, of course, and the other was thrilled! The horrified cry of the first was, ‘Nothing will ever be the same again!’ The jubilant shout of the other was ‘Nothing will ever be the same again!’ By the way, both groups were right.
It’s long been debated whether the Kingdom Jesus was teaching was the Upside Down one or if it was more accurately the Upside Right one. Considering the status quo (of his time and ours) it was certainly enough of a shake-up to think of it as being Upside Down, but since what Jesus was declaring had forever been God’s design, it might be seen as righting the world back to the way it had been in the Garden. In any case, Jesus persevered against the gathering winds of opposition until he could declare, on Calvary, “It is finished!”
The prophetic song of a young Mary of Nazareth, recorded in Luke 1:49-53, describes this Kingdom’s plan, and its cataclysmic effects, in haunting, foretelling language. Little could she have known that within her lifetime she would see with her own eyes these prophecies come to fruition. Old Simeon’s words about a sword piercing her soul echoed in her ears as she stood weeping at the foot of the cross as her son was dying. The disciple, John, wept beside her thinking ‘Nothing will ever be the same again.’
And we come to the year 2026 and say that they were all so right! It hasn’t, and will never be, the same again, Hallelujah! Change is the only constant. Was Heraclitus the first IT guru? Hmm. PD