It's been said that the only constant in our world today is change. As Robert C Gallagher humorously puts it, 'Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.'





Recently we've had a change of Prime Minister, from Blair to Brown, and the political pundits are debating what it will mean for the country. The New Statesman magazine ran a poll asking: 'Will Gordon Brown change Britain for the Better?' As at 4 July, 43% of those responding said 'Yes' and 57% said 'No'.

Many school students will be off to university in the autumn, and for most it'll mean big changes: living away from family, making new friends and getting used to a whole new environment. On a planetary level, the challenge to our national leaders is to start getting to grips with the reality of global warming and the call for change that this demands.

Personal and painful change confronts us due to, for example, the loss of a loved one, chronic ill health or a partner leaving us. And at the most basic level, it's not easy to face the fact that we're getting older each day. American businessman Bernard Baruch said, 'To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.'

One thing's sure - change is an inevitable part of living. Yet, as we observe the human experience, we recognise that there's something within our psyche that yearns for certainty - things that we can rely on, and that can direct and guide us in the midst of this uncertain earthly life - yet it always seems to elude us. The Bible explains that this unfulfilled hunger is due to the fact that God created us to be in a relationship with Him but that we've broken that connection by rejecting Him and going our own way; in so doing we've cut ourselves off from the only true source of peace and stability.

As Doctor William Craig Lane puts it, 'Modern man thought that when he had gotten rid of God, he had freed himself from all that repressed and stifled him. Instead, he discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself. For, if there is no God, then man's life becomes absurd.' There's truly a God-shaped hole in the human heart that only He can fill.