In recent articles we have explored some of the different kinds of changes taking place in our society. Again, change is a part of life. Some are good, some not so good. I guess one of the most important things is in how we react to them. Sometime ago while in the state of Tennessee I had the opportunity to read a Sunday edition of The Tennessean, Nashville, Tennessee’s daily newspaper. In that edition there was an article titled “Changing population scrambles regional stereotypes.” I wanted to share some of that article with you as it relates to change. These facts came out of a study done by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. The study is titled, “State of Metropolitan America.” Here are some of the highlights:
• The nation’s population grew by nearly 9 percent in the last decade, fueled largely by racial and ethnic minorities. Metro areas grew even faster, by 10.5 percent.
• Half of all children in the top 100 metro areas are non-white.
• Nationally, one in eight Americans is foreign-born; in metro areas, one in six is.
• Only five of those metro areas had populations in 1990 in which minorities made up the majority. Now, 17 do.
The study also said “the nation is on course to become a non-white majority country in three decades or so.” Also of interest to me was that “the combined total of baby boomers and seniors reached more than 100 million in the past decade. A large majority lives in the suburbs. But those neighborhoods weren’t built to accommodate an aging population. And the boomers and seniors live alongside the growing percentage of non-white youths, which the report called a recipe for ‘a cultural generation gap.’”
Change is coming. Change is here. How should I react to it? Somebody once said, “It’s not what happens to us that matters; it is how we react that makes all the difference.” When change comes to your part of the world, be a student. A student says, “What can I learn from this?” Even better is to be a student of God’s Word. In the midst of all the changes, we have the Word which says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Changes, yes, but we serve a loving Savior who does not change.
As we face this cultural generation gap, what would an unchanging Jesus want us to do? Would He want us to maintain the status quo, even to the point of using violence to do so? Would He want us to withdraw into communes patrolled by armed guards? Or would He say, “…lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest” (John 4:35).
Following Jesus will make our world better. Are you a follower?
