Here we are in a new year and just as expected, not much has changed in terms of society at large getting better or even being different. As with every year, days turn into nights and the news cycle turns with it. We wake up and make choices moment by moment on how we’ll spend our time and what will take up space in our minds.
Church, can I be real with you? I’m concerned about us. And I can’t help wondering, have we lost our minds? I don’t mean this in a flippant way. I truly mean every word of this pithy question. Have we lost control of what we're filling our minds with and by doing so lost our minds all together.
We left a divisive year and walked right into a new one. And I can imagine for as long as the Lord tarries it will be the same with every new year ahead. If there is anything the human race is excellent at, it’s dividing and fighting about just about anything. And christians are not immune to this inclination, unfortunately.
Yet, we don't have to engage with the world this way. If we want to, we can do better. When we seek the Scriptures we see examples of God’s people respond to all kinds of societal and personal trouble in all kinds of ways. Some are good, and others are bad. As we discern our times, we must look and ask, where are the godly examples among us?
Where are the Abrahams? The people of God who diligently intercede for their evil city. (Genesis 18:22-24)
Where are the Moses’s? The faithful saints who call on the Lord to spare the people of God from their own whiny, complacent wandering. (Exodus 32:11,14)
Where are the Naomis? The devout who pray not for their own care and safety but for the care and safety of others. (Ruth 1:8-9)
Where are the Jobs? Who in the midst of the worst kind of loss, lament with godly understanding of who is in control of all things at all times. (Job 42)
Where are the Annas? Who expect nothing from anybody but give themselves to the worship and prayer of the Lord all the days of their lives. (Luke 2:36-38)
Where are the Pauls? The obediently strong who pray and worship even while locked up in jail for their faith in Christ. (Acts 16:16-40)
And most importantly...with tears in my eyes, oh church, where are the Jesus’s? The ones who will utter “forgive them father, for they know not what they do” when evil men do evil things and ignorantly call it good. (Luke 23:34)
I know they are out there. I’ve seen their quiet faithful acts of obedience. Their humble activity for the Kingdom. The compassion and peace they bring to others without desiring an audience or applause.
When we seek the Scriptures we see examples of God’s people respond to all kinds of societal and personal trouble in all kinds of ways. We must look and ask, where are the godly examples among us?
Yet, I’m afraid many of us in the church have become a bunch of Jonahs. (Jonah 4)
I know, at times, I have. It's so easy to become prophets of God with a message of judgment only for people we’ve decided are worthy of mockery and scorn. Never looking inward at our own sin, only seeing the things we despise in others. Never choosing compassion and mercy, only focusing on being right about the minutia of our times. And then unloading that wrath towards each other in passive and aggressive ways for the sake of what good?
I guess, our own? Heaven, help us.
What will we do?
We can blame social media, politics or bias news sources all day long. But thats only a problem if we've handed our minds over to these ideologies and spaces for moulding. And in doing so, made them our God. So let’s take responsibility for ourselves for a moment because media is not the problem. We are. Look inside yourself and ask some diagnostic questions: Who have I given my mind to? Where do I go to seek truth when world trouble hits? What has become my God?
None of the faithful examples I gave above desired to see anyone fall. The desire was to see many come to the Lord. It was to preserve the sinful, not so they can continue sinning but so they can live long enough to hear the good news and be saved. It was compassion that drove them, selflessness that preserved them and faith that secured them.
None of the faithful examples I gave above desired to see anyone fall. The desire was to see many come to the Lord.
They were indeed imperfect. Just like me. And I, just like you, have a chance to shake the dust off our past failures to be like these examples. And start a new year with a renewed dedication to put off our Jonah ways and put on the ways of Christ.
To indeed not be conformed to the patterns of this world. To not conform to the divisive othering, de-humanizing and bitter us-against-them rhetorics every side of the aisle is guilty of espousing. And instead, choose to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2)! Which is something that only happens when we focus our minds less and less on the “sides” of our society and more and more on the redeeming Words of the Lord and our allegiance to the church.
I fear we’ve entered another dark age.
The first dark ages were marked by christians not having any access to the Word of God. Now, perhaps a new dark age is emerging. One that may be marked by Christians not having any interest in the Word of God. A culture of christians who identify more with their political views than with the bride of Christ.
I hope I'm wrong. And it certainly does not have to be so.
If we put aside our idols and return to our first love; the One who chose us not once we stopped sinning but while we were still in the depths of our own inflicted darkness and run to Him anew. If we repent of the ways we’ve added unnecessary confusion to our current times and turn from selfish ambition in humility. If we hold our deceitful tongue, do good and seek peace (1 Peter 3:10-11). Then perhaps the mindless christian tide will be turned.
The first dark ages were marked by christians not having any access to the Word of God. Now, perhaps a new dark age is emerging. One that may be marked by Christians not having any interest in the Word of God.
Then maybe the church will be as it should; a beacon of hope, a city on a hill, the salt and light of the world, marked by our love. For God’s glory and the good of mankind. Only by God's grace is it possible. Fortunately for us, grace is His specialty. So let's make it ours also.
Church, don't lose your mind.