We are halfway through the Year 2023! 🥳

While this statement may send alarms ringing for some, for others, it may produce feelings of joy and fulfilment, and for others, a mixture, a rich cocktail of feelings-which-must-not-be-named. I, however, can not help but reflect and be grateful for numerous things; one of which is the privilege to have written the opening Push Button article for the year and to grace your screens once again at the start of the second half — even though a lot has happened in between…and I mean a lot. IYKYK

One of the things we can all agree on — well, most of us 😅 — is that terrains and events have moved fast this year. Things have changed — from the political climate to the tech climate, and even financial markets have changed, including the perplexing phenomenon going on with the FX market. The year has also seen the advent of new things, new pop culture lingo, the latest trends, new tech (some of which literally feed the eye with a Vision’s Pros 😎…and cons) & new ideologies — from Hakimi’s Law to the Game Theory of Strategic Omissions in Marital Finances, and much more.

Many new things (tech, ideologies, etc.) have massive appeal and bear so much promise in their potential efficacy and efficiency in providing lasting solutions to life’s “ever-present” challenges (I mean, Hakimi’s Law “work” abi e no “work”? 🤷🏽‍♂). Sometimes the speed and appeal of innovation beg questions like, “How will the world look in fifty years? What would everyday life be like? Which items would we be using?”. Often we answer these questions with well-intentioned but somewhat fanciful notions like flying cars/highways in the sky, techie/edgy buildings, underwater cities, vacations on the moon, and life on Mars 🤞🏽 — and these notions are pseudo-accurately based on the trajectory and speed of innovation we see in today’s times. But take a look around; you’re likely sitting on a chair or lying on a bed — an invention from ancient Egypt. You wear clothes, technically invented post The Fall of Man in the Garden, your bookshelves are made of wood — one of the oldest building materials in the world, and at breakfast (or lunch for the hard-knock-life people), you use a well-known “app” called the fork or the spoon from Roman times to shovel dead animals and plants into your mouth. What am I driving at? Not much has changed.

In the book Antifragile, one of the well-known statisticians and thinkers of our time, Nassim Taleb, posed this question and hinted at the answer: “Assume most of the technology that has existed for the past fifty years will serve for another half-century. And assume that recent technology will be passe in a few years” Why? Like biological species, old technology has proven itself and possesses an inherent logic even if we do not always understand it. Of course, we will witness the birth of many flashy tech and “magic” inventions, but most will be short-lived. Those that survive the test of time are often built on ancient technology or physiology (or their principles).

There’s a term for the psychological bias exhibited for “mania (or craze) for all things new and shiny” — Neomania. Regarding ideologies, the Bible refers to this as childishness — Ephesians 4:14. Sometimes, this even applies to “Rhema” — always looking for the “next rhema” with previous instructions left undone. I sometimes think this was perhaps one of the proclivities of the New Prophet in 1 Kings 13:11–25 that led to his following the “new rhema” when his ongoing assignment/instruction based on the “old rhema” was not yet completed. To quickly balance this thought, failure to hear “new rhema” may, however, have led to the death of Isaac; however, some scholars argue that Abraham — based on the past tense “offered” used in Heb 11:17–19 — had already sacrificed Isaac in his heart so the instruction was complete based on a technicality. In addition, an angel stopped Abraham, not a man, i.e. divine intervention, but we digress.

I like to think of these new inventions, ideologies, trends, and pop culture as the “Sands of Time”; here today, very flashy and exciting, with a lot of appeal and panache…but nowhere to be found tomorrow. Like sand, these ideas can be fast flying, moving with the wind, and pervasive — picture walking on a sandy beach 🌴. I also like to think of the principles on which the foundations of the earth were laid, as laid out in the Bible as the “Rock of Ages”, the rock of revelation, immovable, unshakeable, a more sure word of prophecy, resistant to the wind, and while sand blown about by the wind may cover some portions of it for a while, it remains.

At this point, I would draw your attention to the parable of the buildings on Sand and on the Rock written in Matthew 7 and would implore you to Rock Your Life 🗿 on ancient truths, no matter how archaic or out-of-style they may appear, and not build your life with the Sands of Time, the trends, the next new thing, the next hot take, the trending ideology concerning life, marriage, career, or how to live the rest of the Year 2023 😅.

As such, rather than give you something new and shiny, I will remind you of the former treatise with which we started the year — even though you already know them and stand firm in the truth you have been taught. It is only right that I should keep reminding you as long as I live (2 Peter 1:12–13 | parahrased). What former treatise, ye ask? Numbered Lives Matter.

Do have a Blessed Week!

PS: Regarding those notes you’ve taken for the 26+ teachings you have listened to this year, this week would be an excellent time to revisit them and Rock Your Life on the Wisdom of the Ages rather than the passing ideologies of the Sands of Time.

PPS: The title was inspired by Pastor Tolu Moody of Sycamore Church, Ibadan.

Itoro Nehemiah

@_it0r0