Newness 8 Newness or Novelty

[HKHaugan]

Have you ever wondered why people will stand outside computer stores in long lines for hours waiting for the latest operating system, the most recent application, the ‘4G’ phone or the promise of a new style appliance? Or what about the idea of having a new model car or the latest gadget for the home or watching a TV show that plays on an old theme in a new way? And when you get that new thing, whatever it is, have you noticed how quickly you yearn for another something new? That’s the lure of novelty. We are caught in the spirit of novelty. Novelty gets our attention and we pursue its promise only to find that the more novelty we find the more we need. Novelty is like a giant magnet thrown out before us and draws us in. It’s power hard to offset.

What does all that say? What it says to me is that the search for newness is built into us from the beginning. Newness is a longing in the heart. Newness is a glass waiting to be filled, a road waiting to be paved and a horizon to be reached. However, what is really new was cut off from us because we lost our connection to the source of newness, a relationship with God, that is “new every morning, new every morning” as the hymn says. Newness is a blossoming of our uniqueness, a bursting of personal enthusiasm and a surging of our heart and spirit into action. How that happens? The last line of the hymn tells us the source and the means of newness, “Great is Thy faithfulness O Lord, great is Thy faithfulness,” the Lord and His gift of faith.

The dark trap lying out there in the world is the spirit of novelty distracting us away from God’s newness. This is what idolatry is all about, an alluring promise offering temporary false sanctuary for the emptiness one feels within. The lonely guy at the local bar downing and drowning his lost thoughts in an anesthetic moment. Bars are some people’s altar served by the aproned priest who presents a sip of fake newness that has a novel name and a novel mixture. This followed by seeking more novel names with novel exotic mixtures, novel bars and novel priests. Or how about the woman who believes her immediate need to answer her condition is the ‘new’ hairdo, the ‘new’ skin saving cream, the bath oil that promises ageless beauty? All novelties. The devil has countless distractive strategies to novelize our inner anxieties. There are a million moments like these that illustrate our need for the newness only a relationship with God can deliver.

The real difference between newness and novelty is that newness is an ongoing experience of fresh relational realization while novelty is the belief in anything that gives an immediate satisfaction for a perceived need regardless of source. Newness is from God. Novelty is from the world.

Newness meets real needs.
Novelty meets perceived needs.
Newness is relationally centered.
Novelty is materially oriented.
Newness requires faith in God.
Novelty requires faith in whatever feels good for the moment.

If we have been conditioned by a life of novelty it is hard to leave, to accept relational quality as a way of life. If our life is lived for the present in terms of feeling good then novelty is our idol. Newness is an ongoing realization of the infinite relational possibilities that God brings to each of us. Novelty depends on constant stimulation by filling every next moment with a distraction. Newness is the byproduct of God’s love. Novelty is derived from the lust for instant gratification.

I want to be quick to assure you that the latest electronic, social and optional variety is not evil. It is the motivation, the attitude and the reason for choosing them that is the root of concern. It is the condition of the heart that determines where we are in the management of everything we are involved in. So prayer, Scripture and sharing are always the safe sources for making the kinds of choices that bring newness and lessen the influence of novelty.

“From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you.
They are created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today (Is.48:7 NIV).”