Nothing new really, there have always been wars and calamities. Although it does seem to be on the increase.
One thing's for sure, things went a lot slower in the past. Transportation, mail, news and life in general travelled at a much slower pace. Back then it also seemed there was a decorum of morals and values in the culture. Now it looks like a lot of that is out the window.
I was talking with someone the other day about how nowadays we live pell-mell in the throes if an internet-driven, stress-inducing media overload and a "great confusion" of attitudes, opinions, propaganda, not to talk about "blood and guts" TV series and video games, or sensational news delivered 24-7 right into our living rooms and mobiles. In the "olden days" heroes were good and villains were bad. Nowadays the gangster or the assassin is often the good guy, or the one you are led to feel sympathy for.
Apart from Hollywood - seriously - all too often "wrong" people seem to be saying the "right" things while the ones supposed to stand for the "good" are saying or doing "wrong" stuff! What's going on? How can we navigate through these confusing times? It's unsettling and upsetting at the same time... and food for thought! I put "right" and "wrong" in quotation marks, because - although I do believe there is such a thing as Good and Bad, in this broken world "bad" and "good" are faulty stereotypes and not fixed categories. So much in life is in the grey zone.
But that's life!
In our consumer oriented society, Christians have an abundance of choices. Liberal, Conservative, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic and every denomination, colour, shade, opinion and leaning in between. There is something good in all of them.
As for me I try to the best of my ability to be a follower of Jesus, but what does that mean today? As a young Christian I thought things were pretty clear cut and fairly black and white. Now it seems things have become a lot more nuanced. Perhaps the Lord want me to mature and stand on my own two feet?
For example, In my selection of posts on this site I chose what resonates with me, even if I don't always agree with certain things the preachers say or do.
But that's life!
Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we miss the mark. All I can do is try to the best of my ability to stay on the straight and narrow path through this great confusion - this maze of opinions, doctrines and teaching that is being hurled at us.
In a recent interview I heard someone say that we only understand 1% of God. I tend to agree. We only see through a glass darkly, but with Jesus and the Holy Spirit (the spirit of truth ~ Joh.16:13) as our guide, coupled with the experiences life teaches us, we sort through the propaganda, the agendas, the prejudice, the preconceived ideas and whatnot, in order to navigate our way through life in a world that seems to grow rapidly darker, in grateful anticipation that at the end of the tunnel sunshine and light awaits us.
Do you think perhaps that's what God has put us here for?
That's life!
- And the beauty and challenge of navigating life!
