THE DARK CLOUDS OF ANARCHY…

A prognosticator or a prophet I’m not, but it doesn’t take much insight to see something significant going on in the world. A growing anarchy perhaps? The revolutions of the recent Islamic Spring, the financial implosion of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, along with the pending financial implosions of Spain and Italy, the stalemated conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the unrelenting joblessness in America and the recent free-fall on the NYSE…just a few of the major events that point to the fact that the economic and political stability we’ve enjoyed for the last two generations might be headed for a serious shakedown.

Some of you might read this and say, “No way, what you’re describing is just the normal ebb and flow of life in our modern world.” I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Again, I’m not a prophet or prognosticator, nor am I an expert on reading the tea leaves of modern trends, but I can tell you this, I’ve been around for sixty four years and something about the current climate feels different to me. The political vitriol seems more hateful, the spiritual nihilism more entrenched and the resultant cynicism more widespread. I know of no one who’s drinking in current events and cavalierly holding out hope for better days in the near future.

“Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’” (Matthew 24:1-2) How preposterous this must have seemed to his disciples. The temple was a massive structure, constructed with huge granite blocks some of which measured over 40’ and weighed more than 400 tons. It was to the first century Jew, indestructible, and a visual portent of a secure future. Jesus knew better. Within one generation Jerusalem and this “indestructible” temple were completely plowed under by the Romans. Jesus knew that no human construct is guaranteed, not the improvement of the stock market, not the recovery of jobs, not the survival of governments, not even civilization itself. To believe otherwise, though instinctively alluring, is also naïve. Human nature, while overflowing with grand curiosity and splendid ideas, is also irreparably corrupted by selfish ambition. If only it weren’t so, but over and over again history corroborates this heartrending fact.

Like everyone else I long for a prosperous and peaceful tomorrow, but the dark clouds of anarchy have me more than a little concerned. Centuries ago the Jewish world was on the cusp of unimaginable implosion when the prophet Habakkuk wrote, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no heard in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Good advice. This is why as Christians our real hope should not rest in or on anything that humankind creates, but in the protective presence of Christ whom the Bible says, “…is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Love and blessings,

David