The Shifting Beneath Our Feet – Sunday, December 30, 1951
The coming of another New Year recalls once more to mind these words of a New Testament text: “. . . And [Jesus] made as though he would have gone . . . But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”1
There comes a time in the life of every man when he arrives at the realization that the day is far spent. And as swift events move us on toward eventide, we are brought almost to fear the passing of time, and yet again, to be impatient that it may pass quickly and bring us to a better day.
We fear change; we fear the unknown; we fear uncertainty and the future. We wish that something would stay put, that some step on which we place our feet would not shift beneath us, that some soil in which we sink our roots would not be washed away. But with these thoughts there comes also the awareness that there has never been a time when change was not upon us. It is not given to men to stop the sweep of the tide nor to stay the course of time.
Always we shall live with change, sometimes quiet and almost imperceptible, sometimes swift and disturbing.
But in facing a future that cannot be foreseen, blessedly, fortunately, there is faith to sustain us—faith against fear, faith against confusion, cynicism, and frustration: the faith that prevents the uncertainty of the future from destroying the possibilities of the present; the faith that brings peace and sweet sleep, courage and confidence, and the satisfying assurance that behind all change, and overruling all change, are principles that are constant, powers that are immovable, laws that are inviolate, and providential purposes that forever persist as we move toward tomorrow and tomorrow, toward promised events, toward those eternal verities which are part of the plan and purpose of the Father of us all—toward a time of which “the day or the hour no man knoweth,” but which surely shall come for all and each of us. God grant us healing, strengthening, sustaining faith for a New Year.
1Luke 21:28-29
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, December 30, 1951, 11:00 to 11:30 a.m., Eastern Time. Copyright, 1951
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December 30, 1951
Broadcast Number 1,167