By Rev. Pete Hyde
I recently bumped into some folks at Walmart northwest Arkansas. This is my old stomping ground from my high school days. “What’s the best BBQ restaurant?” Hobo Joe’s in Lowell. “Where do you get the best family style fried chicken served family style with all the fixin’s?” The Monte Ne Inn that sits in the shore of Beaver Lake. Just a little way from there is an old amphitheater the lake covered when it filled in the late 60s. When the lake level is down, the old amphitheater makes an appearance and then disappears again when the level rises. It is like an old haunting reminder of the way things used to be. The past and the memories are just below the surface.
I was back in Rogers, Ark., where I graduated from High school, a couple of years ago. Yes, it has changed. It was the first time I had been back in six or seven years. When we moved there after Dad retired from the Air Force in 1970, the population of Rogers was just a little over five thousand. Today the highway sign says about 55,000. Some of the “old spots” where still there, but the surroundings were so changed that if you didn’t know what you were looking for you would miss it.
Dirt, country roads are now paved, and the pastures are covered with subdivisions and strip malls. Where my high school girlfriend and I used to go horseback riding probably would not let horses in the gated communities. The soda fountain/drug store downtown is now an antique and craft shop. Just like the lake had covered the amphitheater, the new had covered the old.
A bit of nostalgia took over. I almost wish I could make it all the “way it was.” I wish I could dust off the streets and walk through the familiar neighborhood, visit the familiar faces. I wish I could…but I can’t. I must accept the change – like it or not. I cannot live in the past no matter how comfortable and wonderful I have convinced myself it was. Would I really want to go back and live those turbulent teenage years over again? Honestly, No! Some days, maybe.
The Apostle Paul writes, “Hope that is seen is not hope, why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24) My hope, our hope is not in the past – what we have seen or can see. Our hope is in the new creation, new life, new direction that comes to us through the saving power of Christ and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. Our hope is in what lays ahead, not the idealized images of the past.
Change is the only constant in our lives. Change is never easy. We usually don’t change until the pain of functioning in the “same old” way is greater than the pain of making the necessary changes. I believe this is true for each of us, for our churches, for our nation, for our world, for humanity.
Renewal and restoration are constant themes of the Bible. The shepherd writes “He restores my soul.” He doesn’t bring back the past. He doesn’t camouflage the old. He restores and makes new. He will restore the calling. He will restore the mission. HE WILL RESTORE THE HOPE. HE WILL RESTORE THE SOUL.
No matter what our age, no matter what our stage or circumstance in life, we cannot live without hope. We cannot hold so tightly to the “old ways” that they become an immovable anchor keeping us from our true potential. We are being shaped daily by the Master Sculptor. He chisels, chips, sands and shapes to bring out what he has in mind for us. He rounds and smooths the rough corners of our character.
Sometimes this chiseling, chipping, sanding and rounding is painful and uncomfortable. But when we allow the Master Sculptor to have his way with our lives, then we become all that he has intended for us to be. And when the final shine is placed on the sculpture of our lives, the life of our church, our nation, our world, we will stand brilliantly in His presence, having achieved all he has sought for us to achieve.
“O Lord, chisel me, chip me, sand me, polish me, shape me, mold me into what you would have me be and yes, Lord, comfort me in the pain and discomfort of the process. For you are making all things “NEW” and that includes me. My HOPE is in you.” Amen.
Rev. Pete Hyde serves as chaplain with the South Walton Fire District
