CONFUSING TIMES ARE VERY HARD TIMES

 

I hate  driving in the fog, whether daytime or at nighttime. I am afraid that someone may come crashing in from my rear or not recognize my headlights in the front. I am confused. And I feal very fearful. 

 

We are living in a time when there are no signposts of truth. The culture is very polarized and very shrill about their positions. What should hold us together with clear values are almost non-existent. You may try to teach your children one value only to have it trashed by the very next TV program they are watching. We live in a post-truth world. It does not matter what the truth is. This is all about winning. It is power that counts! And that is all!

 

You teach your children that life is sacred. You must not kill – even your own self. Next month the family is greeted with news that your great aunt has just had herself put down with medically assisted death. What do you teach your children as the truth? What values can they stake their lives on?

 

Human beings need to have some clear and definite values. We find it very difficult to live when the value ground is shifting every year. The values that are true and give for us to follow are like the runway lights on a runway at night. I remember the northern pilots telling stories about how much they appreciated the runway lights when they came in from the North on an ambulance call to bring a patient to the University hospital in Saskatoon. So often as they would recount these night trips you could feel that they wanted to get out and hug each one of those night lights. Each light told them exactly where and how they could accomplish their flight mission.

 

As the culture is shifting more and more to a very individualistic position there is greater distrust of any type of institution or organized set of values and directions. It is all about how I, the individual, is going to do things. No one is going to impose some other truth on me!

 

In all societies, religion has been the force that defined peoples’ lives and had signposts that were clearly right or wrong. Religion gave your value to your own individual existence and your place on this earth.

 

Religion has been regulated to the margins. It is strictly and individual’s choice. You have your religious values and I have mine!

 

It is in this confusing fog that we live. What does it mean for our Christianity?

 

This is a time to rediscover the great truths that our Christianity brings. We are just like the first Christians who were misunderstood, rejected because they believed in the wrong truth. Their position challenged the powers that be during the first two centuries. They had to locate the powerful meaning that their faith in Jesus Christ brought to their lives/family/society. We are in the same position.

As we move through this fog of confusing values, we want to locate the truths of the revelation of Jesus Christ. We want to be claimed by the power of his truths. 

 

We may be living in the fog of moral confusion, but our feet are standing firmly on the ground.