The winds of change are blowing harder and harder
by Bill Shepard
The winds of change are blowing; be careful that you are not blown away.
The winds of change have been blowing since time on Planet Earth began. Not many things, if any, except for change, have withstood the winds of change — change remains constant.
Have the changes all been good or have they all been bad? I suppose the answer lies with each individual or perhaps is blowing in the wind and time will tell. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan took questions regarding social problems like war and civil rights and he wrote the song, “Blowin’ in the Wind” and his response to those questions was that “the answers, my friend, are blowin’ in the wind.”
We read of civilizations that rose to greatness and stood for centuries, but then came change. Historians of olden times have written, and pages of ancient history reveal, the stories of empires that have been but are not any longer. The winds blew strong and fiercely and as a result, many of those empires lay smoldering in the dust of change!
In my lifetime, I have seen Nazism, fascism and communism rise to what seemed invincible strength, and then fall. As the first prime minister of India once said, “The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down.”
We have seen our own Democratic form of government stagger while under attack from within. In more recent times, our Constitution has been questioned as being out of date and there are suggestions that parts of it should be changed. Such questioning would be enough to make our forefathers tremble!
Even the blessed old book, the Bible, has been under attack for several years and continues to be so. This book guided humanity through the troubled waters of centuries but again, like the Constitution, is considered by many to be outdated and should be changed.
Some said such change could never happen in America. This writer has seen change during his lifetime that he never thought he would see. Today, we are seeing change in America that no one ever thought we would see!
I could fill this article with the changes I have seen happen just in my lifetime. Have they all been bad? No! Have they all been good? No! The winds are blowing, and our world is changing before our very eyes.
I hear people asking, “Will we ever get back to where we were before coronavirus came to our shores, bringing the changes we have recently been experiencing?” Changes blew in on the wind! Who would have believed this would happen and in such a short time?
Changes have come in the way we do business, do our shopping, go to school, attend our churches and find our entertainment. All the above has happened in an unbelievable time.
Forecasts of more changes are blowing in the wind. We hear the sounds and they seem to blow stronger as a big event draws nearer – that of our national election every four years. Eyes at home and around the world will be upon America, as the winds of change increase. Predictions will be forthcoming, and some will come to pass, and some will prove false. That is always true.
Speaking of true, there is one thing that can never change and that is the Truth. Ideas and opinions change, but the Truth remains, even after the winds have blown. Change will go on but when opinions and suppositions all prove false, Truth will still be standing tall. As the good book says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40:8 (KJV).
Buckle up! Do not be blown away with the winds of change.
Bill Shepard’s fourth book and his first children’s book has been published. Shepard and his family worked with an illustrator from Charleston to turn his mostly true story that he wrote nearly 50 years ago into a chapter book for kids. The book, “Fugi’s Great Adventure,” is $14.99 and is available from Amazon. You can order autographed copies from Shepard for $14.99 postpaid. Send orders to Bill Shepard, 324 Sunny Lane, Piedmont, SC 29673