Do you realize, Americans went from the Fitbit craze, counting steps and calories with pinpoint accuracy, to binge-watching British television for hours on end? Think about it. Before COVID, people had apps and wearables that measured multiple aspects of health: blood pressure, heart rate, activity level. Now, it seems, the apps have been put to sleep and those wearables are without a charge. The fitness fad will be back around, of that I'm sure (I was around for leg warmers and aerobics classes); but under quarantine, fitness gave way to TikTok dances, IGTV recipes, and Zoom happy hours. Now that things are moving again, another fad waits in the wings.
Does it surprise you that people are fickle? People love something new. New outfit, new hairstyle, new ride. Newness brings with it anticipation and an element of uncertainty. What will it all look like when it comes to fruition? What will it feel like to be sitting in my newly renovated living room? What will the people at my new job be like? And then there's the sense of unlimited potential. With a new look we might feel more confident, inspiring us to take steps we wouldn't normally take: talk to the boss about a raise, ask the girl in 5A for a date, go clothes shopping.
New is important to God, too, but not in a faddish, superficial sort of way. When God speaks of doing something new, He tells us it will be so new and so wonderful, it will be so transformative, the things of old will not even be remembered. He says, all we have come to know will be turned on its head: paths through the wilderness and rivers in the desert, a beating heart of flesh where a dead heart of stone used to lay, a former fleshly existence put to death and resurrection to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is part of the new covenant those of us born after the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus have offered to us. As children of God, His mercies are new to us each morning; we awaken knowing we have a fresh opportunity and God's continuous care to live that day as He, in His great love, planned for us. And new things call for a new song, a fresh, personal expression of gratitude.
New is exciting. New is inspirational. But the newness God offers is not faddish or fleeting in any way. The new that God gives those who surrender to His Spirit's transforming power is as old as God Himself. He secured it for us before the beginning of the world and its fruit is the very essence of His character. This new is not going away any time soon and it is as reliable as God is faithful. No fad to come will ever take its place.
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