The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have built bigger houses to shelter smaller families. We spend vast sums of money to have more conveniences, but we have less time for family and friends. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge but less judgment and huge debt to pay for our education. We have more experts, more problems and still fewer solutions to our problems. We have more medical technology but less wellness and healthcare. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but do not have a better life. We’ve added years to life but less living to our years. We’ve been to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things but not better things.
We’ve tried to clean up the air but allow movies and TV to pollute our souls. We’ve conquered the atom but have not curbed our prejudice and bigotry. We write more but learn less. We plan more but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush to the point where life is simply passing us by. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less with our fellow man.
These are the times of fast foods and bad digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes and more divorce, fancier houses and more broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer us up, to quiet our nerves and perhaps to end our lives. It is a time when there are multiple items in the showroom window while there is little or nothing of value in the stockroom.
When will we realize that what this nation and all peoples of the world really need is God? In the astounding, dumbfounding and vain comparisons listed above, we fail to recognize and refuse to return to the Giver of all things that we could possibly ever need: love, devotion, fellowship, courtesy, courage, understanding and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
When we return to God and let Him reign in our lives, we will be the most blessed creatures in the entire universe. Until we allow God on His throne to bless us more abundantly than we could ever believe possible, we will remain a fighting, bickering, deplorable mass known as a lost race and a festering sore that is a blemish and a blight on the universe itself. If we humble ourselves and call on God, then, He will hear our cry and heal our land. Then and only then will we again be the bright shining and lovely creatures that He made from the dust of the earth.
