The “Breakpoint” radio broadcast comes daily from the Colson Center on KVIP. John Stonestreet is the daily commentator and provides compelling cultural analysis from a Biblical perspective. I’d like to summarize and comment on what John shared on 1/25/23. The life-expectancy of Americans is declining. This is surprising in view of the most advanced and sophisticated health care apparatus on earth. But closer observation helps us understand why. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed
to the decline as one might suspect. But researchers have also coined a phrase, “deaths of despair”.
“In 2021 there were over 100,000 deaths from drug overdoses, an increase of 15% from the previous year. Deaths from suicide and liver disease also increased, the latter a symptom of the same kind of self-destructive behaviors increasingly taking the lives of young Americans.” Ellen Meara, a health policy professor at Dartmouth told the Washington Post,
“There’s something more fundamental about how people are feeling at some
level … People are feeling worse about themselves and their futures, and that’s leading them to do things that are self-destructive.”
“Americans are increasingly lonely, purposeless, and prone to reckless behavior.”
As we look across the national and international landscape it is clear that something is terribly amiss. Natural disasters, violence and economic uncertainty loom large on the horizon. The Bible tells of cultural conditions as we near the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Paul’s words, it seems to me, reflect what we see around us today. “But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather then lovers of God.”
II Timothy 3:1-4
That sounds like our modern world. This all begs the question, what are Christians supposed to do and how should we live in these troubled and tumultuous times? I reflect on the conditions that the early church must have faced. The Roman Empire did not take kindly to threats to their rule. The Pharisees hated the followers of Jesus Christ. Paul faced these threats everyday. But as I read the pages of Philippians I find Paul incurably joyful even though he found himself in prison for his faith in Jesus Christ. I think we should brace ourselves for persecution in these troubled times we live in. Yet, I also believe that we are going to find a vast mission field of hopeless people right on our doorsteps. We need to be prepared to share our faith. As we stay in God’s Word, nurture a life in the Holy Spirit and stay connected to Biblical community I believe we will have all the resources of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to face our troubled world.
God Bless You
Pastor Drew
