Progress of Time
This message is really for younger people. If you’re a younger person, realize that every change brings both good and bad aspects. One day, God willing, you might be reflecting all the changes you’ve seen in your lifetime.
I’ve reached the age where I can incorporate something from my younger days and half the people have no idea what I’m talking about. For example, I referenced a movie and the person pointed out that not only had they never seen it, but it came out way before they were even born. Well, let me explain some of the progress I’ve seen in my life.
My parents had a black and white console TV until I was about 9 years old. My dad was excited when they delivered his new 19” color console TV that weighed a couple hundred pounds. Where we lived in the country, there were three TV stations we could get with a big antenna Dad had erected on the side of the house. If the weather was just right, we could get PBS as the fourth channel.
About the time I left home for college, mom and dad got cable TV and had access to about 30 channels. In my dorm room, I had a cable outlet and had access to the same 30 channels. I saw my first music video on the new MTV cable channel. It might have been Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” I upgraded my TV from a 13” black and white to a 19” color.
Mom and dad also had a rotary dial phone in the kitchen (the only phone in the house). Sometime around my early teen years, they added phone outlets in the living room and one in my parents’ bedroom. Cellphones didn’t exist until I was in my mid-20s (my first cell phone was a bag phone provided by my employer). I was in my early 30s before I had my own personal cell phone, which only made voice call—
no messages or any other function.
In my late teens, I bought my own used stereo receiver from a friend. I could play records and record mix cassette tapes. If I was patient enough, I could record songs off the radio onto a mixed tape. However, I was hardly ever that patient. My first car had an 8-track player (I chose poorly). I also subscribed to 10-tapes-for-a-dollar music services where, if you weren’t diligent and timely, they’d send you new music monthly and expect you to pay for it.
Somewhere in my early 30s, CD players came out, and shortly after that, music became electronic through iTunes. Similarly, I was in my early 20s when we got a VCR recorder to tape TV shows. About 10 years later, DVDs came out, then Blu-rays. About 20 years ago, movies became available on demand.
The phone I have today in my pocket dwarfs the computer I used in college and my early career. I bought something called a color computer (remember, I’m a geek) as a senior in high school, and I believe I paid extra for it to have 64 kb of memory. My current phone has 512 GB of memory or 8,000 times that of my color computer.
I was a tester for my company’s remote-access capabilities in the 1990s, when it might take two minutes after you pressed a key to get the action needed from the connected computer. I was one of the early users of a BlackBerry, where you could send emails to other users from your phone. I didn’t get the first iPhone, but we did move to that system in the second or third version when the App Store became available.
I tried to mention a few things that have changed significantly in the last 60 or so years. As great as all these things are (I really think, for the most part, the increased ability to communicate and access information is a good thing.) they have brought as many problems as benefits. For example, the last time I flew, I got on a shuttle bus to take me to my parked car, only to see every person on that bus fixated on their phones, oblivious to the outside world and to everyone else on that bus. I’ve taken college classes where every kid comes in hunched over their phone, oblivious to everyone else in the class. These electronic marvels have made it extremely easy to isolate ourselves from each other, even when we are in the same room. This isolated communication also encourages us to ignore the needs and politeness we should be showing each other. Heck, my wife and I have messaged each other from within our house from time to time.
I believe, however, this has been going on throughout our whole human existence. It may be happening at a faster pace today because of technology, but it still has been going on forever. Here is a great example.
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”” - Daniel 2:31-35, 39-45 ESV
My mental interpretation of this melded with the empires associated and their advancement, especially in the implements of war. Bronze, while strong, is not nearly as strong as iron. Iron, in my interpretation, indicated the Roman Empire and eventually, it fell (the iron and clay mixed). Kingdoms will come and go until God comes and replaces them with his eternal kingdom. While I long for that day, like Paul, I want to serve God until he calls me home.
