I was challenged in my thinking the other day. It seems like the older I get that happens less and less frequently. My opinion is that most people my age have their minds made up about stuff…we are difficult to change…we already know…or don’t care. The older I get I’m tempted to abandon the search for what’s true in exchange for what works…what gets me by. What that means is I’ll attempt to ignore some of the things I do…my behavior…when, if pressed, I would have to acknowledge that my actions contradict what I say I believe. I am not breaking the laws of God and men that are necessary for a safe society. I’m not robbing people…selling drugs to children…or otherwise menacing my community. I’m a good citizen. On the other hand, if God has a law that is not recognized by society I will ignore God’s law in favor of a greater acceptance by the people around me. This behavior doesn’t typically manifest itself in the things I do. It’s more subtle than that. I see it mostly in my thoughts and attitudes. Sooner or later my thoughts and attitudes translate themselves into actions…my behavior.

The challenge to my thinking went something like this. If I say I believe in God, if I say I believe in Jesus Christ and all the claims he made pertaining to himself, then why am I reluctant to speak of him? If I believe that apart from Jesus there is no salvation, how can I silently witness a sea of humanity walk down a road that I know leads to eternal death all the while saying nothing…doing nothing…giving no warning? Am I embarrassed by what I believe…am I ashamed of it? A possible explanation was offered. Maybe I see the world I live in as a hopeless place…already doomed. Maybe I see it as a place so committed to erasing God that I recognize my place in it. I have no place here. This is not my eternal destiny. I believe there is something else…somewhere else…something more. Since that is perhaps the case then, have I withdrawn myself from the general stream of society? Have I isolated myself and abandoned my alleged responsibility to be…more vocal? I think so. I think that’s all true. I think the person who challenged my thinking assumed I cared about the masses when in fact I…do…not. To be clear I don’t wish for bad things to happen to anyone. I have no emotion or passion attached to it either way. If the Bible is to be believed, and I believe it is, most humans…the vast majority of people will never find the narrow way to God. Most will die eternally separated from him. How does that make me feel? It makes me feel like it’s a done deal…unchallengeable…axiomatic. For me the question of questions has always been this. God himself acknowledges that the sacrifice of Jesus, the utter ruin and bankruptcy of heaven, would not lead to the vast majority of human beings reaching the place where he is. The experience of most will be God as their judge. Only a precious few will experience him as savior…a very precious few. Yet somehow God considers the precious few as a win…as worth it. How can that be? That’s my question.

The world with it’s culture and system is not improving. Humanity is not evolving into a species that is growing more God-like. People are not improving. The opposite is true. A day is coming when God will remake this place…this world into the place he always intended it to be before it was corrupted.