We have old ladies being thrown in prison for sitting outside abortion clinics. We are seeing drugs take kids at younger and younger ages. Shootings are on the rise among teens (between 2013 and 2021 the number more than doubled). It’s now legal in multiple places around the world to legally help someone kill themselves. The mobile phone has radically changed the way we interact with each other. Experts say the average American spends 4.5 hours on their phone every day. That adds up to an awful 12 years of staring at a phone over a 70 year life. The content we are viewing is bad enough. But the worse part is we are not talking to each other. Kids are wrestling with social disorders because they don’t know how to communicate. Their interaction skills are hugely related to a screen. And this list is just the tip of the iceberg. All this and the thing that irritates some people the most is the grocery store ran out of their favorite soup.
The weight of living in this dark world is unbelievable. But you and I can’t fix it. Wow. Now that I’ve overwhelmed you and then said we can’t do anything about it, let’s unpack the idea. Jesus is the only One who can mend the broken heart. His truth is the only way a twisted mind can be renewed. His path is the only way anyone of us can know joy, peace and love. Jesus is it. No other way leads to life. So, why the weight? Because people don’t know and those who do, many times, act like they don’t.
Truly, lostness (people who don’t know Jesus and don’t have a way to meet Him) and laziness (people who do know Jesus and do their best to forget Him) are our two greatest challenges. In Romans 1, Paul tells us that God has revealed Himself clearly to all of us (the world) since the beginning of creation through the created order. In other words, we have no excuse. He tells us we exchanged our natural orientation for an unnatural one and we are happy with the lie we received. This is the state of the world we live in today: happy to be lost and totally ambivalent of any consequences their rejection of the good might bring.
Here's the deal: Paul’s description of the world isn’t meant to be depressing. The standard God created for us is beautiful. Just because the world rejects Him, doesn’t mean there is something wrong with Him or His standard. It does mean we desperately need the Lord. It means we can’t tell which way is up without Him. And, listen to this, it means that the broken place we live is not to blame. People are to blame. And people are worth saving.
I need to work at finding beauty in the world and not coloring everything dark. Loving people is hard business. It’s full of hurt and anguish and trauma. But it is also filled with love and sacrifice and joy. The payment for sin is without a doubt death. But we are quick to forget that the gift of God is life. That’s not to say we are supposed to just endure this life until we get to Heaven. Life with God begins the moment we exercise faith and step across the line of belief.
Do you need hope? Are you overwhelmed by the blackness, the darkness of the sin-filled world in which we live? If so, you aren’t alone. But take heart! The beauty of God is all around us! Creation itself is enough to demonstrate God’s love and care for us, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. I challenge you to ask God for eyes of faith to see and experience joy today. God’s life among us is far more REAL than the lies of the enemy. Don’t allow Satan’s agenda to color your mind any longer. Take the truth of God’s Word as an open door to step out of the threatening environment of the world and into grace.