What happens when the familiar disappears faster than the future arrives
Martin Mawyer
Have you noticed something strange lately?
The world you grew up in is not just changing.
It is vanishing.
There was a time when progress felt like progress. New things arrived, but the old things stayed. You could look around and still see the landmarks of your life.
The phone on the wall.
Children flying paper airplanes instead of drones.
Coins in your pocket.
A car dashboard you could actually understand at a glance.
Now look around.
For the first time in my life, I sometimes look at the world and see almost nothing familiar.
For most of human history, change came slowly. Your childhood was still visible in your adulthood. Your adulthood was still visible in old age.
If you went back to your hometown at seventy, you could still point to the shop, the church, the house with the maple tree.
Not anymore.
This may be the first generation that can live long enough to watch its entire world evaporate while it is still alive.
Phones are no longer phones.
They listen. They track. They record. They predict.
Taxis are no longer taxis. Many do not have drivers. Soon they may not even have steering wheels.
Maps do not fold. Photos do not fade. Birthday cards land in your inbox instead of your mailbox.
Something essential has slipped away.
Not the past itself. But the evidence of the past. The physical anchors. The touchstones that told you, “You lived here. You belonged here.”
Children today will never know what it felt like to drop a coin into a payphone or tuck a printed photo into a wallet.
Those were not just objects. They were rituals. They were human moments.
They belonged to people.
I’m not afraid of change.
My generation has lived through more change than any generation in history.
We are afraid of erasure. We are afraid of looking around and seeing no trace of the world that formed us.
Progress used to feel human. Now it often feels automated, distant, like we are being managed rather than served.
And yet, in the middle of this vanishing world, there is a truth that does not vanish.
The world can disappear. The soul does not. The past can fade. Truth does not.
Landmarks can crumble, but God does not.
Maybe this vanishing world is reminding us that what is seen is temporary.
And what is unseen is eternal.
Scripture says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
That verse was true when maps folded.
It is true when maps are digital. It was true when phones hung on walls. It is true when phones listen from our pockets.
The world may feel unfamiliar. But we are not orphans.
And the world that ultimately matters does not require updates.
It will not be replaced.
It will not vanish.
That is something worth remembering.
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Martin Mawyer is the President of Christian Action Network, host of the “Shout Out Patriots” podcast, and author of When Evil Stops Hiding. Follow him on Substack for more action alerts, cultural commentary, and real-world campaigns defending faith, family, and freedom.