Helping YOU bring home the joy of the Gospel in practical, everyday life!

Yes. Our country is in crisis. What can we do about it?

As I sweat it out on the treadmill, watching the latest stories run across the screen, I tend to get disgusted by the flashy but inconsequential, limp responses to the crises: polemics, marches, demands for tougher laws, and ‘vote the bums out’ just to name a few. I sense growing hopelessness as these crises hit faster, closer together and strike at the foundations of our way of life in America.

Many of us, including many of those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, wrestle with these feelings. That many of these crises are heavily politicized only complicates a clear understanding of the problem and the solution. At their core, these national crises exist because they were individual crises first. This is where I am focusing my comments in this article. What hope do WE have? What can WE do to purvey that hope to people around us?

The Problem and The Solution

As Christians, we know exactly what the problem is in each of these crises: man’s sinful, glory-gobbling heart at war with his Creator—a war that has only one lasting solution and we know what that is: redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ! Man’s “solutions”, however, tend to be heavy on symbolism and light on substance, weak on long-term effectiveness and therefore usually have the effect of eroding hope for and confidence in any solution, especially the only effective solution.

In saying all of that, I do not mean to be simplistic. I am simply cutting to the chase. Obviously, our problems are usually complicated and require long-term, practical attention. But real hope ultimately comes from matching the core problem with its real solution. The often long, rocky, uphill road of lasting change is guided by clearly defined hope that addresses the real problem.

Are We Part of the Solution?

Tragically, we can forget the Good News and its power to change lives. When we do forget, it is not long before we ourselves get sucked into the vortex of fear and vitriol. Worse, it keeps us from seeing—and entering into—the suffering of individual people many of whom live right next door to us. Perhaps the crises on T.V. don’t touch them directly, but they don’t have to. Indirectly, they tear away at a sense of security that undermines their confidence as they struggle through their own—crises.

Think About Your Neighbors

Our elderly neighbors have lost their health. Their son who is dealing with job loss and is physically limited by a chronic back condition. He has been commuting from two hours away each weekend to clean and shuttle clothes and meds to a rehabilitation facility where this couple has been now for eight weeks.

By worldly standards, the future is not looking too good for this family. Gut-wrenching decisions are ahead. Incredible sacrifices will have to be made. Much of what this couple built for 40 years of marriage will likely be lost. There is fear and a lack of hope.

So what is one to do? We have sought to minister hope explicitly and practically by helping with late night errands and visits. We have prayed with the son and his parents several times for wisdom, financial provision, and healing. We seek the right opportunity to share God’s plan of salvation more completely. In the meantime, we try to season our conversations with a few carefully placed reminders of God’s truth; his goodness and his work even in distressing situations. We have had him over for some meals when he was in town. During these meals, we learned about him and his family. An auto mechanic, he very graciously helped us with some needed car maintenance.

Do WE Remember Our Hope?

I do not believe in coincidences. I have great hope that God is doing something powerful in this family. In some very simple puny ways, moved by the love Jesus continues to show us in our own mess, we have the privilege to be part of what God is doing in the story of this family. But our focus has to be on the hope: the confident assurance that guides even though the circumstances appear hopeless.

Brothers and sisters! We have hope! Yesterday we celebrated Easter, we wore our Sunday best and watched our children hunt for eggs in the backyard. What did we celebrate? What does Easter represent? Victory! We know a completely triumphant, risen Savior! We have confidence! We need to act with the confidence that comes from the certainty that we know the fundamental problem and its solution. There is no guesswork here on our part. Consider that. God has said that we are his witnesses.

This is real encouragement for us and for others who may not know Jesus. The infallible Scriptures tells us this. We have a unique and blessed opportunity to speak of hope with confidence to people who are watching the same news… and are likely looking for some answers beginning with hope.

What You Can Do

1. Do not be swept away in the fear and hopelessness of the headlines. Remember the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ.
2. Get to know your neighbors and ask about their struggles. I find that people are usually quite willing to share. Pray with them about their concerns. Pray for them as a family. God is good. God is sovereign. We can trust that God delights in bringing redemption through challenging situations.
3. Be intentional with your neighbors and the crises they are dealing with. Enter into those with them with the power and hope of the Gospel that is secured by the resurrection we celebrated this weekend.

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It is 11:59 PM. You’re exhausted. But the conversation with your teenager (or spouse) has now drug on for 48 harried minutes. Despite your generous investment of time and attention, it is clear that the issue on the table is about as clear as a London fog.

We know that these conversations are an inevitable part of life in a fallen world. It is easy to grow weary of them and tune out or avoid them altogether. But they can be part of good relationship development. We learn a lot about others and most especially—ourselves—through them.

Wouldn’t it be nice to figure out a way to burn through the fog? Refocusing our attention on the cause of the issue or conflict (whichever) that lies beneath these conversations can help reduce the duration and frequency of these conversations so that they are more redemptive. Here’s how.

To begin, there is no formula. I apologize if you thought I was going to give you one! (Faith is not a formula but it doesn’t stop us from hedonistically searching for formulas, does it?) What I’m going to share with you is something more fundamental that cannot be replaced with a mere on-demand formula although it can also be helpful in the moment.

Desires Drive Life

The issues of our lives—that cause conflicts and those squirrely conversations!—are the passions, or desires that are idolatrous and rule our hearts. Luke 6:55 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

“Evil treasure” can also be described as deceitful desire or evil desires as we see in Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:5 (respectively). “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.”

Desires Can Become Demands

Most desires are not inherently sinful but become idolatrous when they depend on something or someone other than God for fulfillment. For example, a desire for the delicious taste of mint chocolate chip ice cream is not a bad thing in itself. But what happens if you go to the store and they are out—or worse, they don’t have green mint chocolate chip but only the white kind? Do you get angry about it? Getting angry is a sign that the desire has indeed become idolatrous.  Another example could be a desire for a secure future. You have diligently saved and invested wisely. But there’s a market correction and your portfolio loses 40% of its value. How do you respond? Ultimately, our response reveals where our trust really is. If it is really in the portfolio then fear and anxiety will overcome us. If however it is really looking to God, then amid the conflicting emotions will emerge obedient rest in God despite the loss.

The issues of life are fundamentally desire-driven. This represents a challenge for us, especially as parents. Are we merely training our children to “do what is right?” Or, are we getting to the real heart of the issue which is the often stealthy desires that have driven those actions? Actions are merely the flower, the desires are the root. Based on how we parent, would our kids say that doing the right thing is more important than doing it for the right reason?

If desires are the problem, then what are doing about them? First, desires are always directing us. They never rest. Perhaps putting it that way is enlightening? If desires are always at work, then it is appropriate to discuss them at any time. We rarely evaluate ourselves or discuss desires with others this intently. The second thing we can do then is to get into the habit of discussing desires.

Talk More About Desires

One day a few weeks ago, I took one of my teenage son on some errands. Actually, now that I think about it, it was—his—errand! Anyway, he was talking quite passionately about a particular interest of his. (If my van were electric, I could have plugged him into the engine and saved a lot of gas.) At the end of what was at least an 8-minute monolog, I simply said, “WOW. You have strong desires!” Then we had a good discussion about desires. Nothing my son said that day was sinful. He did nothing wrong. But in the moment, the opportunity presented itself simply to draw attention to this fact.

It is good that—especially in normal, non-confrontational conversation—that we talk about our desires so that we can begin to be more attentive to their presence, identify them, and connect them to our behavior more readily. In normal and stressed conversations asking the question, “Why?” is a great tool that allows you to cut through the fog and reach the desire level.

Dealing With Actions on the Desire Level Provides Hope

Talking about desires prepares us to be able to deal more effectively with those issues especially when they come up at midnight and you are not in the mood for a 48 minute game of mental hopscotch. This is not hard to understand. However, the things that are simple to understand can sometimes be the hardest to do because they require intentionality and usually more of our time. But we must remember that our investiture pays off because this is what God has said is our core problem. Addressing the core problem as God defines it gives us tremendous hope that better days are ahead and confidence that we, in all of our weakness, can be God’s instruments in each other’s lives!