I've noticed a trend in our culture at large of cynicism. For example, the romantic comedy Chris and I watched recently didn't have a "happy ending" but left it with the woman protagonist more or less realizing it probably wouldn't work out. It was all very post-post-modern.
So this kind of cynicism seems to have seeped into my circles of christian culture too. It is popular (or maybe common is a better word) in these circles to be self-deprecating and cynical about sin. Humility is one thing, but this isn't humility because it doesn't acknowledge the power and goodness of God in our own lives. Instead, it goes around saying "woe is me" and "woe is the world" but not expecting change to come. I want to say that I am not minimizing any hardships someone may go through. I know that life is not simple but I believe God calls us to hope and believe (2 Corinthians 4:7-18 is one of my favorite passages that speaks strongly about these things). We are earthen vessels, cracked pots with great power shining in us.
We need to have our eyes opened to the blinding truth that God's love is resoundingly infinite. He will not leave us in sin and sorrow. Our lives will not be easy, but with the Spirit of God our lives will be astonishingly redeemed. I am speaking this to myself right now as much as anyone reading this:
I pray for new life and hope and that we'd be earnestly humble to see the KING work.
ISAIAH 59 was prophesied and prayed for over me a while back and I am awed by it:
"cry aloud, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.
yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know my ways, as nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinance of God.
they ask me for just decisions, they delight in the nearness of God, "why have we fasted and You do not see? why have we humbled ourselves and you did not notice? behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire and drive hard all your workers. behold you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. you do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
is it a fast like this which i choose, a day for a man to humble himself? is it for bowing one's head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?
is this not the fast I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?
is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry and He will say, 'Here I am'
if you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will become like midday.
and the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a well-watered garden, and like a spring whose waters do not fail.
those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.
if because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable,
and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word.
then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
