Experts tell us the shape of people’s brains is changing: from a time when school children had to ‘remember’ their 12 times table, the capitals of Europe, important historical dates and the formulae for basic physics calculations. Now it’s all available at the touch of a screen and what they have to remember is how to make that screen work! It feels like a ‘brave new world’ but our forebears would have said similar things about TVs & telephones and those before them about electricity and so on. We live in a world that is always changing…
Nevertheless, there are some things that do not change and we should be careful to remember those:
Last Sunday morning we were reminded of the importance of our response to the grace of God that those who trust in the Lord Jesus have received:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3,4)
It may well be that our experience of the world changes but as we heard, the passage goes on to say our response to the privilege of knowing God is to be increasingly like Jesus: Goodness, knowledge of God, self-control, perseverance, godliness and brotherly love are traits that never grow out of date. Whatever happens to the shape of our brains, the shape of our characters matters much more!
As Christians, let’s take care to remember daily that we have received such grace… and what our response should be.
Spencer Shaw