Keep Calm And Suit Up!

BY DRAKE   DE LONG- FARMER

You don't need to look very hard to see that there is something serious broken with the world: the unrest and global tension in Ukraine, climate change, genocide, children being sold into the sex trade, 1/9 of the world still not having access to clean drinking water and the list goes on. It can be easy to look at all this and see a grim hopeless situation. Often it can be a natural response to ask the question 'why?' Why does this happen? Why would people resort to such evil? Why would God let such evil happen?

Sometimes I want to ask God, why do you allow famine, poverty and injustice in the world when He could do something about it... But I'm afraid He might just ask me the same question...

//Unknown

So often in life, I find that we can ask the wrong questions. See, instead of always asking the question: 'why?', we should be asking the question: 'what now?'. It can be easy to wonder why such things happen, or even wonder why nobody else has done anything about it. But at some point, we need to KEEP CALM, SUIT UP & BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION.

Though the topic at hand is a complex one, I have two thoughts that have been rambling around in my brain for a little bit now that I would like to get out.

First, the situation is not as hopeless as we might think it is. It can be easy to see how terrible things are, with no quantified movement towards the good we wish to see, and we can become discouraged and do nothing. We start to say things like: "What can I do? I am only one person." or "The problem is to big." But the reality is that we are already seeing a change for the better. Take this video as one example:

Now of course this is only one facet of the entire gambit of things going on and we still have a lot of work ahead of us. But, what I hope you can take away from this is just that... HOPE. With the right emphases, attitude, tools and people, we can actually make a real difference. The question that will always remain is this: 'Do you actually believe this?'. Can we see that we have the great opportunity and privilege to be a part of the change and the change can start today. It is amazing what the human race can accomplish when we work together.

Is this the world you want?
Is this the world you want?
You're making it
Every day you're alive

//Switchfoot ('The World You Want' from the 'Fading West' Album)

Second, our beliefs about ourselves, this world and God shapes how we choose to react to the reality around us. 

Let me give an example: If you have a low view of the human race and it's worth, you will view God as one who has no issues with discarding it and in turn will see no need to see it become better.  But if you see intrinsic value in humanity and the world around us (because God bestowed it), you will view God as one who sees worth in His creation and wishes to redeem it and in turn join that mission of redemption

I see two driving forces in this world: one of hope and one of hopelessness. One that drives towards change and a better world and one that sees no reason to do so. One that sees this world worth redeeming and one that sees this world as something to escape.

I hold a belief that God is on a cosmic rescue mission of redemption and we get to be a part of the healing process that God wishes to see in all His creation. Furthermore, what we do today not only has a temporal effect on this existence, but will also carry into and effect the eternal. In other words, what God redeems today can and will carry forward into the next age.

It can be easy to wonder why such things happen, or even wonder why nobody else has done anything about it. But at some point, we need to KEEP CALM, SUIT UP & BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION.

When we have a perspective of hopelessness, we start to believe the idea that the world is only getting worse and will only get worse until Christ returns to lay a final judgement. That it doesn't matter what we do today, the only thing we can hope for is to be rescued from this world and beamed up to a better place. 

When this takes root, people are more concerned about making a point, then making a change; about trying to be right, then trying to understand; about separation instead of redemption. 

We see this with much of western Christianity focusing on 'speaking truth' and 'converting' sinners because we believe that this all that is worth redeeming. No point in being a part of the global change, because in the end it doesn't matter.

But what if it does matter? What if what we do today, in the here and now, in the temporal and yes... even in the physical actually effects and makes a difference in the spiritual, eternal and ultimately has a cosmic redemptive purpose. What if it was God's plan to redeem all His creation and we can be a part of that now? That we are not just waiting around for it all to hit the fan, but we are actually being called  to make a change today. To be agents of change, healing and redemption today. That God is saying: SUIT UP AND BE THE CHANGE!

What would happen if we shifted our focus away from fear driven, hopeless living and instead towards hope filled, God ordained, redemptive thinking & living. That Christ not only came to save our souls, but reclaim the lost authority given to humanity by God to have dominion over this world and actually make it right. 

What would happen if we lived in that... today?