Proverbs 30:11 There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
I’m paraphrasing here because this narrative is so off the wall. I think this is the gist of it. A news reporter was interviewing a recidivist criminal who was bemoaning the fact that it was not fair that his residence had been broken into and robbed while he was in custody for a crime he had committed. He felt the State should pay for his losses because they were holding him, prisoner, while he was not at home to defend the stuff he had stolen from others. I must have heard the report wrong because surely, this is not where we have ended up in our reasoning. How has this become the commonsense of the day?
I’m paraphrasing here because this narrative is so off the wall. I think this is the gist of it. A news reporter was interviewing a recidivist criminal who was bemoaning the fact that it was not fair that his residence had been broken into and robbed while he was in custody for a crime he had committed. He felt the State should pay for his losses because they were holding him, prisoner, while he was not at home to defend the stuff he had stolen from others. I must have heard the report wrong because surely, this is not where we have ended up in our reasoning. How has this become the commonsense of the day?
The attitude of entitlement that is now becoming a given in our society, which no longer holds people accountable for their actions, is the result of our nation reaping what has been sown throughout the last generation. Hos. 8:7a For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. We have allowed the moral choices of the last few generations (mine included) to falter and be led by whatever felt good at the time, whether it was righteous or not. As my friend Scott says, “The formally accepted givens or basic standards that people lived by, have changed, and the commonsense givens that most people understood, are gone. The once caring expectations of uprightness that came through regular upbringing will have to be retaught to a generation who have been raised on violent imagery promoting cruel intent, and they have acquired their ethical values from everywhere and anything that seemed plausible at the time.” To me, the scary part is that the generation who got their guidance from Beavis and Butt-Head and similar role models are now in charge of the levers that make the world work.
Every generation needs a God-inspired awakening so they can come through the difficulties of their day, and this generation is no different. We all need the reassurance of God’s love and purpose for our lives. God’s love can elevate a soul to choose life and find real righteous direction. The Lord’s affection and salvation can pull a person out of despair and a visionless life. As the world system tries to equalize and make carbon copies of everyone through the philosophy of human-centredness, the authenticity of a person becomes muddied and uncertain. Plus, humanism, socialism, and authoritarianism in themselves cannot feed the hunger in a soul that was created to be fulfilled by God’s eternal purposes. Instead, acts of cruelty become the results of all the emptiness people are experiencing as everyone lives by their own moral code.
As so many of you are wondering, I am also trying to understand, what are the governing authorities and bureaucratic departments counting on? What is their end game in trying to make everyone the same? What are they expecting as a result of converting everyone’s thinking into a vegetative mundane state of existence? What are they counting on? I know a teacher who grinds her teeth when the subject of participation trophies for all comes up. She says, “What do we (as a society) expect when we are encouraging a generation of children who will not accelerate in trying to conquer the hard things that confront them? We give participation trophies for just signing up on a team, even though they do not show up to participate in half of the games. Then, these same kids (and their parents) feel entitled and expect the teachers to give away straight ‘A’ grades on their report cards even though they have not done the work. Where has this dullness of thought come from?” I think this dullness of thought has come from a few generations sowing sinfulness and expecting liberation.
Prov. 30:11a There is a generation that curses its…. leaders, teachers, neighbours, nurses, and anyone who has a genuine thought of kindness. The ever-increasing cruelty in life that we are watching unfold has become the world’s inheritance. These acts of selfishness are people’s expressions of what is in their hearts. Out of the heart will flow the issues of life. Luke 6:45b For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. We are watching the crumbling of human resolve and strength fall apart. What we are seeing and hearing would have been thought insane at one time but is now mainstream thinking for many. The self-righteous declaration of “If it feels right, then do it,” regardless of how destructively it affects others, has come back to bite humanity with consequential results. Meditating on cruelty and acting out what the cruelty expressed has become the given within a confused society. Prov. 1:16 They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder.
We are not the only ones who have ever gone through this mess and felt the heaviness of the times. Habukkuk was written around 586-BC. Habukkuk is describing the very same things we are witnessing daily. Hab. 1:2 How long, O LORD, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. 3 Why do You make me see disaster, and make me look at destitution? Yes, devastation and violence are before me; strife exists and contention arises. 4 Therefore the Law is ignored, and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out confused. Confused is right! How true a statement that the world is confused and without remedy.
The Lord said that we would have trials and sorrows, but to be courageous because He has overcome the world and all the cruelty in it. We are to take heart in that fact. Jesus is letting us know that He has overcome so that we may have peace on this earth. John 16:33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. One translation says, “Be of good cheer I have overcome the world.” Be courageous, be of good cheer, and take heart when we see all the cruel and unjust events taking place around us because the Lord has overcome the one who is causing the mayhem. Be assured, that Satan’s days are numbered.
God asks us to meditate on what Jesus said because His faith-filled words will bring peace to our hearts and minds in the center of all the chaos. If we keep our eyes on the Lord, then the woes of the world will be a noise in the background as we walk with our God. We overcome because Christ has already overcome the hellish disorder that brings distress to our hearts. Keep praying for the loss and one another, and trust in the Lord’s victory, then the peace of God will be our peace Amen!
Even if it were possible for mankind to solve half the problems you mentioned, we would still be in a mess that only the Lord can fix. Yes, Jesus is Lord!
I appreciate the article and the summary choice of John 16:33. Dismay is mounting for many people who thought the answer for the world's woes are schemes to fix them, like the failed climate crisis resolutions, with more money and programs. As world crisis continue, articles like this help me want to evangelize all the more. Our only hope is in Jesus. Problems, whether our personal barriers to joy and peace, or giant world problems like war in Ukraine that marinate in evil, are all founded in Satan. Jesus is The Way!