A Christian Lament: The World in Which We Live

The world in which we live is stranger than fiction; it is more bizarre than a nightmare.

It is a world where we value choice more than life, and fiction more than reality.

It is a world where truth is sacrificed for convenience, and honor has been all but forgotten.

It is a world where freedom has become equality, and where liberty has become illegal.

We live to be left alone, that is, at least enough, to be able to do what we want. Ignorance is bliss as we would rather not get involved in anything that will make us stand for something.

We crave the grey and avoid the colors. We fear questions as they demand answers. And, answers force us out into the sunlight when we would rather stay in the dark.

We are a people who test the wind to see which way it blows. We think the wind leads to the truth that we seek when it merely reveals the direction of the crowd.

We worship ourselves and call it real. We worship our ideas and call them new. We discard other ideas in favor of our own and call them better.

We like the future because we cannot be held responsible for it. We look to the future because it is unrealized. We worship the future because we think we have control of it.

We have become an entity to protect. We have become a commodity to sell. We have become our focus without even realizing it.  

We look at the world in which we live, and we are disgusted by it. Yet, we have become comfortable with being numb to it.

We think that we can live in our corner and avoid it, never realizing that our corner has become that which we have been trying to avoid.

We have become the world in which we live. We sacrifice people for programs. We give only if we get. We are the truth that we seek.

Who are we really worshiping? Who are we really serving? Who are we, really?

The world in which we live... is who we are!

If we do not like this world then we must start with... ourselves!

But, how do we change?

We are new creations. We are temples of the living God. We are a holy people and royal priesthood.

We are creation, created to serve and not be served, created to worship and not be worship and created to love and be loved by someone greater than ourselves.

We are lost, but we can be found. We are blind, but we can see again. We are dead, but we can be made alive.

The change that we seek in the world is really the change that we seek in ourselves.

We must first change.

We must surrender who we are.

We must submit to someone other than ourselves.

We must love everyone except ourselves.

Then, and only then, will we change the world.

The world in which I live is me, and I do not like it.

Therefore, I begin changing the world by changing... ME!