Tis the Season?

Tis the season.

Unfortunately, I’m not referring to the season of peace and goodwill, of kindness and generosity, of laughter and celebrations. The season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus is a couple of months away. Maybe Elvis Presley asked the right question, “Why can’t every day be like Christmas?”

But it isn’t, is it? And it can’t be, can it? Human choices have made, are making, and will make it impossible for days to be filled with peace and goodwill, with kindness and generosity, and with laughter and celebration.

There are the powerful who choose to use their power for their own selfish purposes, or use their greed to take everything they can, or who have a god complex and want the world to focus on them. They are often wolves in sheep’s clothing who deceive many until it is too late.

There are those who embrace evil and all that evil entails. Human life has no worth. If destroying the lives of others is necessary for them to carry out their evil, so be it. For them, violence is a way of life and they’ve never met a weapon they did’t love. Those who act out of evil intent have sold, or given, their soul to Satan. They use their snares to entrap others in their world of anger, hate, bitterness, and evil thoughts and actions. Once again, those who embrace evil often come to us as wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. Many a person has been led down the wrong road, the road of personal destruction, by those who disguised their evil intent until the trap was tripped.

As I write this morning (October 11, 2023) the powerful and the evil are on full display.

Whatever lens we use to view the world, we can’t help but see the havoc evil can work.

At a time of great danger in the world, a time when we should be united, there are those still working to divide us. We discover that the world of social media is full of divisive statements and ideas that are perpetuated by those who see it, like it, share it, without having any idea what they have seen, liked, or shared.

I’m not a pessimist by nature, but I am a realist, and realism tells me that over the next year this divisiveness and craziness is only going to get worse, because we will allow it to do so. We’ll let our emotions guide us instead of using the brains the Lord gave us, and we’ll join in the divisiveness, the craziness, and the childishness of our times.

When I listen to and watch so-called responsible and mature people act like petulant children, I think of the words of the Apostle Paul, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 12:11)

Are we now at a point when we should put aside our political differences, our religious differences, and our cultural differences, and demand that those who want to lead us into the future put an end to their childish ways? As long as we allow it, they will continue to speak like children, think like children, and reason like children, because it gets them the attention they crave and, often, the results they desire. What’s the result of giving in to a child’s temper tantrum? Same thing.

So, what should we do? How should we proceed? There are no easy answers. People have become entrenched in their opinions. Objective truth has given way to some kind of alternate reality. As one of my old mentors, A.A. Blanks used to say, “Common sense has become a scarce commodity.” For whatever reason, people find it easier to believe what they want to believe rather than think through what they see and hear. It is an ages old problem as the prophet Isaiah reminds us:

“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;

keep looking, but do not understand.

Make the mind of this people dull,

and stop their ears,

and shut their eyes,

so that they may not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and comprehend with their minds,

and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

We live in a time of stopped ears, closed eyes, and a failure to use the minds the Lord gave us. And everyone believes it is those who disagree with them that are wrong. It is always “their” fault. It is “their” failure.

So, here’s the message for those who claim the name of Christ—Christians. It’s time to put our focus where it belongs…on Christ Jesus and his teachings, on the word of the Lord. We must not dabble in the politics of the world; for that can only make us blind to the real needs of the world. Sociological discoveries and psychological findings are well and good, and sometimes prove useful in our society, but they do not have the power of the gospel.

Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica where they spoke in the synagogue on three Sabbaths about Jesus being the Messiah. Here’s what happened: “Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.” Success brings jealousy. Some of the Jews became jealous, and, with the help of some “ruffians” “formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. (Mob mentality is dangerous. People get caught up in the emotions of the moment and they will join in saying and doing things they would never ordinarily do.) When the “mob” couldn’t find Paul and Silas, not to be deterred in their mischief, they went to the home of a believer named Jason and dragged him and some other believers before the city authorities. Let us be reminded that what looks like a wonderful thing when it is happening to others; is not wonderful when the tables are turned and it is happening to us.

We must pay attention. We must think with our intellect and not our emotions. God gave us a brain for a purpose. Humans have the ability to reason, and we should use that ability.

But, my brothers and sisters in Christ, when the “mob” dragged Jason and other believers before the authorities, here’s what they said, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also…” (Acts 17:6)

They did not turn the world upside down by becoming a part of the world.

They did not turn the world upside down by espousing political arguments.

They did not turn the world upside down by blaming others.

They did not turn the world upside down by whining and complaining.

They turned the world upside down by: “Explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.’” (Acts 17:3)

Once more for emphasis: “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”

That, my friends, is the message that can and will “turn the world upside down”