When the whole world is falling apart, remember this

The whole world feels like it’s falling apart doesn’t it? We’ve got wars. Environmental disasters. Plagues. News stories revealing widespread corruption at every level of society. Basically, if you feel like the world is a giant dumpster fire, it’s because it is.

And what can we do about it? Who can save us from this body of death?

The way I see it, there are three choices before us in answer to these questions. And they’re the same three choices that we always have before us in every situation and circumstance.

(Bad) Option 1: Put your hope in people

The first choice is to look to people to save us. More specifically, we turn to politicians, which is a losing proposition. We must respect human authorities and pray for those in positions of power (1 Timothy 2:2) without question. We should seek their best in the way we would anyone else. But we probably shouldn’t put too much faith in their ability to meaningfully deal with the problems of the world. Even the best politicians are going to be able to make very limited long-term positive change. And, sadly, the “best” have largely left politics in the hands of the rest.¹

At the risk of being reductionistic, if the world is a dumpster fire, you can’t expect the people holding the matches to put it out.

(Bad) Option 2: Embrace hopelessness

Then there’s the second option: embrace hopelessness. And this is so much of what I see in younger generations—in 20 somethings and younger. But it’s not the dour sort of determinism that one might picture when reading a word like hopelessness. Instead, when they see the world falling apart, many embrace hopelessness via a kind of joyful nihilism. It’s a perspective that says that because nothing matters and everything is awful, it’s best to make the most of it and try to enjoy the ridiculousness of it all.

Theirs is the fatalistic cry of those who said, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Isaiah 22:13).

(The only good) Option: Trust the one who overcame the world

We should not embrace either of these options. Expecting too much from human leaders will always lead to disappointment.² And joyfully embracing hopelessness is fundamentally unchristian. So instead, we need to took to the third choice, the only one we really have:

When the world is falling apart, we need to trust in the one who overcame world (John 16:33). This is not a pie-in-the-sky optimism, or naiveté about the state of the world. Instead, to trust in the one who overcame the world is what it means to live by faith in the world!

Christians are to realists, in the best possible way.

We are to see the problems of the world and we refuse turn away from them. We don’t dismiss, excuse, or baptize them, either. We ought to be the sort of people who call a spade a spade—a virtue a virtue or sin a sin. Who commend what is praiseworthy and condemn what is reprehensible, no matter where it originates from. Who mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who are honored.

But more than that, we are to be people who work to improve what we can. Where we have the ability to make meaningful change, no matter how long it lasts, we must. We work within the structures that exist around us to pursue justice, mercy, and compassion for the good of all, while we point to Jesus, who is our hope (1 Timothy 1:1).

Christians are to be optimists, in the best possible way.

And there is the key for us. We are optimists because we know how the story of this world ends. Christianity is fundamentally hopeful—and it is grounded in a sure hope; a certainty. Christians have a Savior—one who can actually save. Jesus overcame the forces at work in this world with his death and resurrection. They have no power over him. Christians are his people in this world—empowered by his Spirit as ambassadors of his kingdom that is to come.

So even though we have three options, we really only have one good one, don’t we?

Does the world seem like it’s falling apart? Yeah, it kind of does. So remember this: even when the world is falling apart, Jesus has overcome the world. And that really does change everything.

Photo by Shannon Kunkle on Unsplash

1. As those following along with news out of Washington are painfully aware. ↩︎
2. Although I don’t think asking them to “just be normal for five minutes” is asking a lot. ↩︎