Many have observed the rapidity at which our world
changes. Fads come and go; nations rise
and fall, technological revolutions continue to transform our society. Probably nothing can better illustrate this
phenomenon than the meteoric rise and dramatic decline of Blockbuster Video
stores.
In 1989, a new Blockbuster store was opening in the
U.S. every 17 hours. The future could
not have been rosier. Founded in 1985,
Blockbuster’s mushrooming growth reached a peak in 2004 of 9,000 stores. Today, just eleven short years later, you
can’t go to a Blockbuster store to rent a DVD.
The chain filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and officially became defunct
last year.
As such, Blockbuster becomes a metaphor for the
transitory nature of this present world.
The lifecycle may exceed the thirty years of Blockbuster, but human
innovation and ambition divorced from God will all fail in the end.
The Old
Testament quotes the Creator as declaring, “I am the Lord, I do not
change.” Any worldview that ignores the
reality of creatures’ accountability to their Maker, whose eternal laws of
justice and
morality govern the universe, will ultimately be dashed upon the rocks of
despair and destruction.
It is easy to be driven with earthly concerns which
will lose their significance a moment after death, even as the novelty of
driving to the neighborhood video store to rent a DVD has been superseded by
more efficient means of accomplishing the same end.
Wise people anchor their lives in the unchanging truth
of the Lord of the universe. He will
never become passé; His Word will never be rendered obsolete. He can give your life significance that will transcend
even the devastation of death. Ecclesiastes
ends with these words, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear
God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will
bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is
good or whether it is evil.”
