Is It Really All THAT Bad?
Is it really all THAT bad?
I was reared in small town Kentucky with good parents and siblings. At the time, our nation was going through desegregation, bussing, the Vietnam war, sexual and entertainment revolutions, and in 1973 the Roe vs. Wade decision came down from the Supreme Court. So that, by the time Carol, my wife of now 48 years, and I were into our early stages of marriage, we’d seen lots of radical departure from what we’d come to accept as normal. I realize that some of those things needed changing, but only recently did I see a frightening pattern.
Our enemy the Devil has been dividing cultures and building walls for a long time, and it hasn’t stopped. Let me give you a few examples:
In my early years it was “boys vs girls” – “The girls had cooties, and we boys let them know it.”
A few years later it was “city slickers vs country hicks” – In a consolidated school this contrast drew clear lines
Then it was “jocks/cheerleaders vs the other people” –
There was the “naturally occurring – or so we thought- divide between parents and children…parents entered the “not cool” stage as we young people truly needed them
Then the “nerds vs the cool people”
And school rivalries were acceptable and encouraged – the Lyon County Lions were the “enemies” of the Caldwell County Tigers, until you wanted to date a person from there.
Then racial divides became obvious
Then was the “partiers vs the squares”
As I grew older and hit the college campus, politics entered the picture and one party was supposed to hate members of the other, or “independents were to hate folks in either party”.
Along the way, there were religious boundaries established – Catholics, Baptists, Calvinists, Armenians (free will), divisions along spiritual gifting – how many, did they still exist, etc.
Can you see it? The universe of those we were “allowed or encouraged” to love and respect shrank over time to those who believe as we, live as we do, and reject what we reject. I know that some of these divides have been healed; after all, I got over the “girls have cooties” thing pretty early. Several gaps have been bridged. Your story of overcoming these dividing walls may be different from mine, but in Christ each of us has made significant progress or we should have by now.
Let me tell you what I see currently. Leaders in some places are trying to break us into even more factions or to get us to return to the division of the past. A few more walls are now obvious – husbands vs wives, parents vs children, church-goers vs non-church goers; big church vs little church; rich vs not rich; college educated vs blue collar, liberal vs conservative, and we could go on.
My point is that there have been “factors used by Satan to create factions” for as long as mankind has been in the fallen condition. I think it is about time we started building bridges rather than erecting walls. I think this should start in our homes between spouses, between parents and their children, in churches where the “truth in love” quality from Ephesians 4:15 for mature believes is clearly being lived.
Let me tell you one way to begin. I can share more ways and may in coming editions of the 52 Week Plan, but here’s where we start:
- Find a way – using whatever resource works for you – to begin weekly conversations with key people in your life.
- Fathers/Mothers – pray with your kids and for them
- Plan a 15-minute time to read a story; Bible passage, or devotional and talk about it as a couple, as a family; include your children where possible
- Find a friend / family member each night to tell you one thing that is really important to him/her and pray for that request
- Husbands – ask your wife to pray with you – even silently, for each other
What I am saying is simple. In answer to the question: “Is it really all that bad?” My answer is “Yes” because unity and mutual care is lived in far too few places, but disunity, anger, deception, walls of division, and self-interest are too common. But rather than give in, I am determined to fight to the end. The end will be when God says it is the end. Jesus will return to take us home and end the conflict forever, or my end will come in moving from this short-term home to my “long home”. Because God keeps His word and promises, I will be with Jesus in eternity. Just as it has become “really bad” here, in heaven life will be even better and more beautiful than we can at present imagine. I Corinthians 2:9; Ephesians 3:20
Let’s recognize where the “really bad” really is but have confidence in God because He is still in charge and makes beauty from the ashes we see. We are promised that He works “all things together for the good” of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. From things that are “really bad” can come and can come things that are eternally “really good”.
I can’t change the world, but I know Who can. He, our Heavenly Father, wants to change me on the way to changing His world.