The End is Near!

I’m over at my brother’s house, watching him putting food in mason jars to prepare for the apocalypse. I ask, “ Do you really think you are ever going to have to use any of this stuff?” He proceeds to tell me in great detail how our world is at the brink of collapse. "The world is going to Hell in a hand basket! Look at the media! Look at our politics! Look at war, famine, poverty. Look at the recent, senseless killings of innocent lives."

Later that night, I turned off the news because it was depressing. The radio in my car wasn’t much better, so that got turned off as well. Just then my phone started sending me alerts about our galaxy preparing to collide with another galaxy in 4 billion years. Bottom line - we are all doomed.

It’s easy to look around you and lose hope. Do you ever catch yourself longing for simpler times? When the world was less violent and people we kinder to each other, and God and faith were paramount in our lives?

You’re not alone. But let me offer you some good news. We are living in the best time this world has ever seen. Let me explain...


Poverty

In 1820, 1.1 billion people lived in the world with more than 1 billion living in extreme poverty. Now, for the first time in history there are discussions about the possibility of completely eradicating poverty in our lifetime.

Violence

The notion is that we live in a violent age. In reality, we could be living in the most peaceful time in our specie’s existence. Look back through history and see what life was like in Europe during the 14th century. Violence was a way of life.

Disease

With advances in medicine disease has also seen significant declines. AIDS, Ebola, Cancer and other threats that had headlines comparing it to the next Black Plague, have all been success stories for the medical community. As someone who has lost family to disease, I recognize we still have work to do, but the progress in the last 25 years has been amazing.

Religion

Well, what about our faith? If you ask people on the street, they will tell you "God is Dead. People are leaving the church in droves. Giant cathedrals are empty."

Are they? Pew Research Center did a recent study where it showed only modest drops in church attendance over the last 10 years (2-3%) and found that “religiously affiliated Americans are as observant as before”. In 1910 34.8% of the world was Christian. 100 years later? 32.8%. (Todd M. Johnson, Brian J. Grim, International religious demographic statistics and sources World Religion Database)

I’m sure there are those who could grab there own statistics to debate the above points. All of us have personal examples where life has gotten worse, however if we look at it from a historical perspective, we should be proud of how far we’ve come.

We have the capacity for sin, just like our great grandparents did. We might have new mediums and tools, but the corruption of man has been with us since the beginning. When we were adolescents, we lived fairly carefree lives. Once we started families, we were hit with responsibility and hard work. Then in our golden years we become more aware of the world around us, it’s short comings and think back on simpler times. All generations have that reflection. I wonder if our nostalgia for the past is less about a special time in our country’s history, and more of a testament to a special time in our own personal history.

I know that God created us with the ability to worry. It protects us from dangers and allows us to resist evil and grow closer to Him. But be on guard my brothers. Like any God given virtue, evil can distort and corrupt. Feeding our appetite for worry is big business, and we are all lining up to buy. Let’s take a moment away from the nightly news, and look at how far the human race has come. There has never been a better time to live on the planet earth than now. Take that in for a minute. Rather than pointing out that we still have inequality or failings, we should be giving thanks that we are blessed. Once we take our hope back, we will be in a better position to be grateful and continue our progress. My prayer is that once that happens, our culture’s heart will fully open to God.