Keeping the Faith

     It seems these days that there's a lot of chaos going on. Whether it's with our current political situation, our climate changing, mass shootings becoming the norm, or any other affliction impacting our world today, there are a lot of areas we can feel helpless about. Human history has always been this strange struggle with existence, always morphing, with challenges that arise to meet the latest growth that we've accomplished. Amidst all this, there's something interesting that I've noticed. No matter how bad things get, the world keeps turning and life goes on. But we can't acknowledge that fact without giving some weight to it. It's time we looked deeper into figuring out what matters and how to keep going in a world that's seemingly always coming to an end.

     One of the most important things you can have in life, no matter what situation you're in, is perspective. It's often the smaller picture that we can become stuck on and it can be the most depressing. In today's world, this is incredibly simple to do and seems to be the norm among those who surround us. Whether it's on the sidewalks, on the roads, at our jobs, you name it. The small picture is easily obtainable and is what we crave. We're always seeking more via our unending social media scrolling and news headline consumption. It's easily digestible and allows us to feel like we're keeping on top of things. The trouble with this comes when we have only this smaller perspective without any context to anchor us. The concept of FOMO (fear of missing out) has risen in recent years, so much so that we've now had to create JOMO (joy of missing out) to combat it. You may see someone out having a great time and feel jealously, anxiety and perhaps even anger, but...is that the whole story? You can look at all that's going wrong in your life and the areas that you personally have failed but...is that your whole story? When we take a step back, look up from our devices, and engage with our thoughts and with others, we may find that the bigger picture is different from the sum of those negative smaller parts.

     Yes, the bigger picture is where we must look even though it's not where we live. When we look at the bigger picture from a historical perspective, many positive things come into view. For example, did you know that less than 10% of the world's population lives in extreme poverty today? While that's still hundreds of millions of people, did you know that it used to be 30% higher just 30 years ago? Global child mortality for those under the age of 5 was down to 4.5% in 2014, compared to approximately 34% one hundred years prior. There are many areas where if we look at the bigger picture, we see that we're continuously progressing, even when some try to maintain, or even revive, an old status quo. We must take the bigger picture and break it down into smaller pieces, but the bigger picture is where we must start.

     The biggest challenge for me in this is that, as always, what looks good on paper doesn't always work out in reality. What I mean by this is that we gain our perspective, live our lives, and create the future by interacting with other people. As much as some may wish to be, we are not alone in this world. Unfortunately, most of us have probably realized that we can't rely on other people. Our core sinful natures always come out and whether it's through a change of heart, a selfish act, or a damaging statement, others will let us down if we rely solely on them. But that's why we ultimately must stand on something more solid than others, and that something is the truth. Now, in saying this, I'm not opening the rabbit hole to the philosophical 'there is no truth', as that's a discussion for another day. I know what truth is because Christ said it in John 14:6 when he said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." For us, this means that we must stand on Christ as the unchanging, all encompassing, beyond our comprehension truth. When the world questions what reality is and what facts are, we must fall back on the truth. It goes beyond anything we encounter in the madness of life and it is our intellectual refuge.

 

So, as life goes on and the various hits keep coming, having that perspecive that I wrote about is key. We tend to look to the past with rose-colored glasses and look to the future with a sense of uncertainty. But in the immortal words of Billy Joel, "the good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems". New challenges will arise, but new joys along with them. The truth may be challenged and we may become lost in the current trends, but the bigger picture shows us that none of that is forever. In the end, it's important for us to stand strong, push forward, and keep the faith.