Modern, Urban, Digital
by Gary Henry
via WordPoints.com
"I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).
We might wish we’d been born in another world, but that choice is not ours. What we’ve got is what we’ve got. Jesus’ prayer for us was not for God to give us another environment but to help us with the one we’ve got. Some changes in the world are more transformative than others, and the modern/urban/digital revolution is one of the major hinges in human history so far. To those naive enough to say, “I’m not afraid,” Yoda would say, “You will be.”
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, there is a famous scene in which Gandalf explains to Frodo the terrifying things that have come to pass in Middle-earth. Saddened and fearful, Frodo says, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” To which Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” You don’t have to be a Tolkien fan to see the wisdom in that. Our duty is to play well the hand we’ve been dealt.
There is no denying that some epochs are more difficult to live in than others. Pretence is evil, and we must never pretend that things are just fine when they are not. Nor should we simply bury our heads in the sand. The Christian should be the first to weep over conditions that are sorrowful and work toward their betterment in any way he can. What I am saying is simply this: our work in the Lord will be helped if we honestly — and with accurate information — acknowledge that we’re doing that work in a world *significantly different* than the one we were working in a few short years ago.
One piece of evidence that Christianity is of divine origin is that it ministers to the human spirit regardless of the environment. Has the world moved from pre-modern to modern? That’s fine. Is human life now most often urban? That’s okay. Do digital technologies dominate our lifestyles? Don’t worry about it. Ever since Adam and Eve took up residence east of Eden, God has called His people to bloom where they’re planted, in a wild multitude of environments. Whatever may be the context in which your life must be lived today, it will be possible, by His grace, to do what needs to be done. Go ahead and do it!
"How I spend this ordinary day in Christ is how I will spend my Christian life" (Tish Harrison Warren).
