The world's only hope

There is so much distraction here in the living world. The chaos that exists in the urban realm continually pounds on us, sapping our will to survive. Progress is an ongoing process and, man in general, has many accomplishments to be proud of, yet we have also left many scars on the world we touch. Our world leaders not only make decisions to drop bombs on one group of people and, from the same planes, drop pallets of food to help the starving. We continue to develop weapons of mass destruction and then prohibit and demonize other nations that pursue the same path. In the meantime, our world’s population continues to grow pushing upwards of seven billion and real possibilities of food and water shortages are on the horizon.

It’s in this day to day struggle that humans try to find some degree of peace in their lives. The pressure of providing for our families is really quite overwhelming to many moms and dads across the globe. It used to be that the family could survive on one income however, today the family unit usually has to have both parents working. This leads many families to become estranged and dysfunctional, increasing the distance between each member of the family. The days of eating family meals sitting at the dining room table are over. In the 1960’s, we left the dining room for TV trays but those are even becoming nonexistent. A covered porch where people would sit and relax, just waiting for an opportunity to catch up on conversation with a neighbor, is but a distant memory.

It’s in the midst of this chaotic fog that human beings desperately try and find peace. We grasp at the first thing that comes along and offers us even a quick moment of solitude. We are so busy trying to find some way of paying our bills that we have no energy or time to talk to each other and our relationships suffer. Even if we do manage to find a thin slice of time to breathe deeply, sigh and let our hair down, we usually end up sitting in front of a flickering TV screen in a mindless moment of escape from the demands of our lives.

We are presently not living up to the quality of life our Creator had originally designed for us. We were designed to live in a world where the lion would lay down with the lamb. To walk in the coolness of the morning with our God, to take time for our loved ones and enjoy each other’s company. The earth, in the beginning, did not grow weeds, thorns or thistles. It was watered by an immense water canopy that protected us from the harshness of the sun’s radiation. As the earth continues to be mistreated by its inhabitants and speeds down a path ultimately leading to destruction, humanity has some hard choices to make.

As I have been reading through Deuteronomy, it’s very clear that God wants the nation of Israel to not only remember Him but to follow His way of doing things. Even as the very Ten Commandments were being etched into the first two tablets of stone, the Israelites, camped at the base of the mountain, were casting an image of a calf to worship. This worship most likely included unbridled sex, alcohol consumption and excess of all kinds. The sight of this mess was too much for Moses and he breaks the first two tablets of stone. He then falls on his face crying out to God to forgive them for their disobedience.

If you think about it, isn’t this exactly what the world is caught up in now? A hurting generation of relationally starved people is bent on reaching out to any pleasurable diversion available. Even portions of the Christian community are walling themselves up into islands of religious activities that look very much like the world that they insist they are not part of. So what is the solution to life? Well, simply put its Jesus Christ.

All other religions focus on bettering yourself in some way, finding peace within your soul or walking a rigid path of self exclusion and denial; Jesus was born to redeem the earth. He alone paid the debt that all humanity owed. He came to the earth modeling love and taught us how to treat one another. Jesus just loved people and He continues to love us even to the point of death on a cross. He showed us that people are the only commodity on the earth that is worth our time and effort. Relationships are the only thing that will continue on the other side of the veil of death. And most importantly is our relationship with God Himself.