Doomsayers

...or "Why Considering History is Important"

They show up at my door, the newest edition of their publication in hand. As with every sect or person who's willing to discuss life, the universe, and everything, I welcome them in.

"Isn't it horrible," one of them offers, showing me the magazine heading about the current state of the world, "how things just keep getting worse?"

Worse? Really?

This is a pet peeve of mine and I do my best to keep my excitable nature in check. "I don't think the world's getting any worse. People are still people, in desperate need of Christ, but we're not more evil today than yesterday. I haven't heard about anyone's house getting surrounded by all the men of a city demanding to be let at recently arrived guests. Have you? And even if that were to happen, that's nothing new." (I've blogged about these troubling passages in Scripture before.)

The End Is Nigh

Judy touched on this topic yesterday as she discussed the hard things of life. Things appear more dangerous, more evil, more despicable than ever before! ...or, at the very least, than when we were kids. The tendency to look back and see something better than the present is common. Just one example: Turns out that "kids these days" have always been narcissistic, self-centered, immoral ingrates whose lives are being destroyed by modernity.

The sweet surrender Heather discusses in her recent blog post linked itself to this discussion. She describes the "crossroads of comfort and reality." We have this feeling that we can make things safe, secure, certain.

But we can't.

Lysa Terkeurst's post this morning beautifully echoes Heather's point: God is our refuge and fortress against fear.

The truth is that the world has always been a tenuous place, held together by nothing more than the will of God. And here, in Christ's will, is where we must live.

When we see the youth of today failing to live up to the standard of His perfection, I find it helpful to remember how God's grace and redemption has carried me this far ...and how much further it has to take me yet.

The constant of history is God's loving-kindness in luminous contrast to man's continued failures.

The more we learn of how He has worked in and through and with us, the more we can trust in Him and share the hope we have in Christ with the doomsayers. Our study of history provides us with a clearer understanding of not only the past, but also our future.

The end -- which has been nigh for more than 2,000 years -- looms closer, to be sure. But that's not where I want my gaze to fall. I want to keep my eyes on Christ, following where He leads, and see the people who need His love and hope through His eyes.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Pseudo-Dad