So the world is in turmoil huh! Economies are being destroyed. Tens of thousands are dying of the virus. Social unrest is rampant. Injustices are being committed. Murder, riots and theft in the streets is all over our news. Countries are closed down and opening up with all manner of conflicting reasoning and blame is the game. Governments and politicians are being blamed, criticised, hated and ridiculed publicly and slandered internationally on our TV’s. Individuals are publishing online their vastly differing, vastly sourced and poorly reasoned (or not) logic and analysis of the why’s and wherefores of what is happening and who is behind it if it is a humanly concocted situation. Freedom of rights or social responsibility to conform to save lives is being aired violently. Yelling into the wind for no one is listening.
On and on we are being bombarded through our global media with 2020’s problems. But maybe it is just 2020 vision of where the world is really at.
Times like this are good for us all I think. Shaking of the shakeable. We must realise that nothing can shake the unshakeable. The world is being shaken because it is shakeable. If we are being personally shaken in the midst of this it is because the foundation of our lives is shakeable. Good! The situation of the world and our lives, our thinking, our emotional security and financial welfare individually/nationally, our spiritual perspective as Christians; if we are in any turmoil it’s because we are not on the firm foundation we might think and say we are.
Unsettling situations reveal the reality of where things are really at, individually, nationally and internationally. Unless we have an accurate perspective of where we are we can never chart a course to where we want to go.
So we are seeing better the way the world really is at the moment. Not 2020 vision but a little closer to it. This is not a new thing this year. This is the way the world has been all the time. This year is showing it up for what it is.
This world system cannot be fixed. The best of the nations are not good enough. There are no great nations; there never have been! There is only one good hope for the human race and it’s source is not in the systems of this world. Expect that “in this world we will have tribulation” (Jn 16:33) It’s a given. The systems of this world can’t be redeemed. They must be replaced. We Christians aren’t ‘of’ this world. We are sojourners in a strange land. We are looking for a Kingdom whose maker is God. No country in this world is a ‘Christian country’ or can be made such. Even our church life is not the Kingdom of God. Our churches, at best, are gatherings of people who are looking for the coming of the Kingdom of God. We are heading there. We will get there but it is not yet. We are ‘on the way’.
So let’s not be disturbed but walk in and into the Spirit of the King. The Spirit of the coming Kingdom is the realm of:
Peace amidst turmoil
Love amidst hate
Kindness amidst violence
Goodness amidst murder
Gentleness amidst death
Joy amidst anger
Patience amidst militancy
Faithfulness amidst suspicion
Self-control amidst fanatic frustration
Embrace these things in your heart and become one with them.
You’ll never be a positive influence to still a storm you can’t sleep through.
