The World I Used to Know - Where Did It Go?

Have you ever had the thought, “Where am I? And what have you done with the world I used to know?” I must admit it’s crossed my mind more than once.

Things were very different in
the world I used to know.

When I was growing up, the biggest problems in our schools were chewing gum, running in the hallways, and the only shooting that took place involved “spitballs” through straws. To talk disrespectfully to a teacher, much less confront one violently in anger, was unthinkable. The idea of someone coming into a school with guns and other weapons, seeking death and devastation, wasn’t on anyone’s fear monitor.

It used to be that comedians could comment on everyday situations we all could relate to, without resorting to heavy doses of profanity and vulgarity. They genuinely tried to entertain, not to demean or ridicule others, or to endorse a certain worldview. Funny people were, well, funny. And they left all of us feeling a little more lighthearted and better equipped for facing the realities of everyday life.

There was some degree of bullying in the world I used to know, and it was unacceptable even then. But these days, technology has driven malicious thinking, words and actions to depths we couldn’t have envisioned in decades past. How tragic that seemingly neutral tools, things such as computers, smartphones and social media, have become twisted into devices for hate and depravity.

The world I used to know was far from perfect, I’m fully aware of that. Society has made some important and positive strides forward. But today, “tolerance” has come to mean being favorable toward anyone who takes a “do whatever you want” posture, while being utterly intolerant of anyone who holds a view that some things just can’t be tolerated, accepted…or heartily applauded and endorsed.

It once was unfathomable that someone on a daytime talk show would denigrate anyone who follows Jesus Christ - and believes He can personally speak to them in a variety of ways - as having a “mental illness.” This, however, is exactly what one “celebrity” whom I won’t dignify by naming stated recently.

A Bible discussion I participated in helped to bring things into perspective. Several passages in the Bible refer to God’s people as “aliens and strangers” in this world. For example, 1 Peter 2:10-11 states, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” (Another translation uses the phrase, “aliens and strangers.”)

King David wrote, “Hear my prayer, LORD, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were” (Psalm 39:12). And in the book of Hebrews’ “hall of faith,” in speaking about those who through the centuries exhibited great faith, it says, “All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

This reminds me of lines from an old hymn you might remember hearing: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue…. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

If we believe the Scriptures, we’re told this world is not the destination, just an interim stop – similar to a stopover in some city’s airport where we change planes so we can get to where we want to go. The only time I’ve been to Salt Lake City, Utah was like that. I didn’t even change planes; we just landed, some passengers disembarked, others boarded, and we were off again. (Looking through the jet’s windows, the nearby mountains did look beautiful.)

Carrying the “aliens and strangers” metaphor further, Ephesians 2:19 points out that once we become members of God’s eternal family, we change citizenship: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household.”

So as the political debate over “illegal aliens” continues to rage, we should recognize that from God’s point of view, we too are “aliens” in this world, neither legal nor illegal. We’re just a-passin’ through. What are we to do in the interim? In 1 Peter 2:12, we find our instructions: “Live such good lives among the pagans (non-believers) that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12).

So if we feel alienated at times, it’s because we are aliens, even though no passports, visas or green cards are involved. We can take heart by remembering, “our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

Are We Ignoring the Obvious?

Shootings take the lives of 20 young children and six adults in a Connecticut elementary school. Similar senseless, horrific events claim many other lives at high schools, colleges, entertainment and retail centers, and businesses across the country. Each tragedy prompts us to ask, “Why?” The question seems to defy answers.

We struggle to determine what can be done to curb such shocking outbursts of anger and violence. Debates about gun control intensify. Curiously, the morning of the Sandy Hook Elementary School slayings, a man went to an elementary school in China and slashed 22 children and one adult with a knife. Should knife control be added to the debate?

“How could a good, loving God allow something like this to happen?” some people ask. It seems strange that when something terrible occurs, people want to know why God didn’t intervene, but when things are going well, they hold Him at arm’s length as if to say, “Mind Your own business.”

At the movie theater in Aurora, Colo. earlier this year, the gunman’s weapon jammed or more people might have been killed. At Newtown, police said the gunman had additional weapons and ammunition, but took his own life. Perhaps God did intervene?

I’m not a gun person, and have no idea why anyone other than military and law enforcement personnel needs semiautomatic or assault weapons. Perhaps bans on those would be warranted.

But I doubt more stringent gun laws will end growing mayhem in the United States and around the world. Those intent on performing violent acts, especially people with imbalanced mental states, will find ways to obtain what they need. If not guns, they’ll opt for knives, machetes, sharpened pencils if necessary.

The problem is far deeper than available weaponry. Look at our entertainment industry. It glorifies killing in the movies, TV, and computer and video games. Just the other day, at the close of one of my favorite crime shows, one of the detectives killed a criminal, and moments later he and his partner walked away, sharing a joke. As if taking the life of a human being – even a bad one – was of no greater consequence than flicking lint off their slacks.

Video games turn killing into contests. The more you kill, the higher you score. “But it’s only make-believe,” game designers and movie producers say. “It’s just fantasy.” Perhaps, but these aren’t Pac-Man or Donkey Kong graphics – they’re designed to look as real as possible. And with mentally unstable individuals that easily mix reality and fantasy, are we surprised when they move “fun” from the world of fantasy and into the real world?

Daily our minds are bombarded with images and messages of murder and mayhem. No wonder some are adversely affected. As the Bible states, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7). Or to borrow the old computer phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

But I believe the greatest factor is that for decades society has systematically and aggressively sought to eradicate God – and thoughts of Him – from our collective psyche. We’ve made the Ten Commandments (including “you shall not kill”) abhorrent. Symbols of faith are treated as offensive. Anyone expressing spiritual beliefs is conveniently discredited as “religious.”

When I was a boy in school, every day started with the Lord’s Prayer and reading a passage from the Bible (usually the Old Testament, perhaps in deference to Jewish students), along with the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn’t fret a single day that some gunman might enter the school and cause us harm.

Today, these practices are either prohibited in public schools or opposed. We’ve “evolved.” We’re “enlightened.” Really? Seriously?

I don’t believe we “took God out of the schools.” As they say, wherever there are tests and exams, He will always be summoned. And God is not subject to human legislation. But by attempting to remove the divine from our daily consciousness, whether in school, business, or even the playing fields, we’ve discarded our moral compass, the foundation for making good and informed decisions.

Proverbs 29:18 states, “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild” (New Living Translation). Another version puts it this way: “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint.” Then the verse ends, “…but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

“Running wild.” “Casting off restraint.” Observing the landscape of 21^st century society, don’t these descriptions sound appropriate?

When are we going to acknowledge the obvious – that there is evil in the world, and God is the only solution to this growing evil presence?

On Dec. 14, a troubled, perhaps deranged young man terminated the lives of 20 children and seven adults (including his mother) in Newtown, Conn. The chapter from Proverbs coinciding with that date included these words: “He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge” (Proverbs 14:26).

In refusing to rightly fear God, are we depriving our children of refuge?