Life in the 21st century America has become a noisy circus.
Media is of course partly to blame. Half a millennium ago, clergymen were already complaining that printing press was going to negatively impact people by inundating them with too much information. Similar complaints followed the advent of photography, radio, film, and television. In each case, society rapidly adjusted to the new normal, but no sooner than another, more powerful, form of media technology came along to upset things and the process started all over again. Who in our generation could have anticipated the changes wrought by the personal computer, the internet, and cell phone? And now we witness the increasing use of wearable media devices that offer a form of mixed reality, with users interacting with the real and virtual world simultaneously.
More important than media, though is the use we make of it. For some, the new media has opened innumerable doors. We can learn new languages, read widely across space and time, experience the finest in art, music, and literature, and manage our businesses and institutions from the comfort of our own home. For others, however – perhaps most – the new technology is more for entertainment than self-improvement, and while this is not in principle harmful, it can hardly be denied that we live in a distracted and negligent society, nor that we increasingly indulge the darkest corners of our minds, where frivolity, anger, and lust are set free to roam like wild beasts in the never-never-land of our unsanctified imaginations.
It may be supposed that none of this really matters. It’s all private. As long as no one gets hurt, no one need feel guilty. But surely that’s incorrect. It’s only a matter of time before what goes on in private begins to express itself in public. A piece of drywall can rot for years without showing anything on the outside, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s rotten. It’ll cave sooner or later.
Take the cardinal virtues. Can it really be said that we Americans are growing in our wisdom or becoming more just in our dealings with others? Do we show that we are able to say “yes” to difficulties and “No” to pleasures? Or is it not rather the case that many of us have stopped even trying to improve our characters, insisting on our right to be as we are, and salving our consciences by airing our positions on social issues?
And we Christians…Have we really guarded the sanctuary of our minds as a place where the thought of God and communication with him reigns supreme? Or have we not degraded our minds into a transit warehouse for worldly trinkets?
Will Durant once said: A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.
Those whose only desire to fit in with what’s going on around them will of course be unwilling to swim against the tide of a crumbling civilization. But those for whom “Jesus is Lord” cannot do this. Nay, he tells them: Take up your cross and follow me.
Brothers and sisters, let’s take this journey together, casting off, as the writer of Hebrews says, everything that hinders, and running with perseverance the race marked out for us, eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
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