Susan Beckett | Dwelling Place City Church
Back in the day before social media took over, my family used to get a daily newspaper. As a kid, my favorite part of the paper was Dear Abby and the comics. Peanuts was one of my ‘daily feeds’ with its clever cast of characters plus the little pearls of wisdom thrown in. One memorable cartoon had Charlie Brown and a friend discussing the problems of life. After much debate, Charlie Brown declared his problem-solving philosophy. He simply said, “There’s no problem so big that I can’t run from it.” Guess you could call Charlie Brown a “conflict avoider.”
I think there are a lot of “Charlie Brown’s” in the world right now. Things seem to be so upside down, it’s hard to know how to respond to life’s situations. So exactly what’s happened? In a word, it’s postmodernism. Postmodernism is the belief that there are no universal truths or norms. Literally, there are no absolutes and “to each his own” is the byword of the day.
Queen Esther in the Bible is best known for standing up to the evil of her time. She had an opportunity to help turn things around and was literally told, “Who knows but that you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this?” That has to go down as one of the most incredible pivot points of history, for indeed it was she who helped save the Jewish nation from annihilation.
I recently listened to a gal on social media – I was unable to catch her name but I was impressed with her no-nonsense approach in standing up for absolute truth in a world that’s as mixed up as a fruit smoothie. Here’s part of what she shared:
“I never dreamed I would have to face the prospect of not living in the United States of America – at least the one I’ve known all my life. This is my home and I’m privileged to be born here. Today I woke up and realized that everything is about to change. Something evil has invaded our nation and our lives are never going to be the same. I think I may well have entered the twilight zone.
We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind – you can’t justify this insanity. If a guy pretends to be a woman, you’re required to pretend with him. Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how may Americans are in America. Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good. People who’ve never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who’ve never been slaves.
People who’ve never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees. Immigrants with TB and polio are welcome but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated. Irish doctors who want to immigrate to the US must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-banger who jumps the southern border is welcome.
If you cheat to get into college you go to prison but if you cheat to get into the country
you go to college for free. People who say there’s no such thing as gender are demanding a female president. We see other countries going socialist and collapsing
but it seems like a great plan to us. Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born and other people are not held responsible for what they’re doing right now.
Criminals are caught and released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it’s a violation of their rights – and pointing out this hypocrisy somehow makes us racist. Nothing makes sense any more – not values, no morals, and no civility.
We’re clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and wrong is right, moral is immoral and immoral is moral: where good is evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong but killing unborn babies is okay.”
We are in difficult days – this is no time for walking the line. St. Augustine (354-430) put it this way: “Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”
Our gal ends with this: “Wake up America – the great unsinkable ship – Titanic America – has hit an iceberg, is taking on water, and is sinking. Speak up.”
Bob and Susan Beckett pastor The Dwelling Place City Church at 27100 Girard Street in Hemet, CA. For more information, you may contact them at DPCitychurch.org
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