Do you feel like our rapidly declining culture is leaving you and your convictions behind? I got talking to a middle-aged man today who lives in a small community, who has no family anywhere near him, and no friends that he feels he can trust…
He isn’t the only one feeling that way, by any means, but he feels like he is. And to make his situation worse, he told me, his “out-dated” views of morality and lifestyles are a barrier to any relationship with his son, who lives half a thousand miles away, and no longer holds to the traditional view of marriage or sexual relationships.
I encouraged him in the Lord. Trust in God, I told him, and lean on Him. I also encouraged him to be strong in his convictions. I said that while some in our society are wanting people like him to feel ostracised, out of date, and incorrect, there are many, many people who feel the same way as he does. He teared up and smiled, and told me how good that advice made him feel. Stand strong, I said, because the Lord is good, and faithful, and He doesn’t change with the twists and turns of a decaying society.
While it’s true that many people, perhaps most, still adhere to “old school” morality, it’s also true that more and more people are falling prey to those who want us to feel ostracised and that we’re the odd ones out: “hateful”, they call us. Good is called evil and evil is called good.
Secular media does the devil’s work, chipping away daily at the confidence of millions. How many people are out there, whose families have fallen apart; whose lives have been wrecked, and who are to varying degrees cut off from others who could and should be standing shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart with them?
Let’s not be corralled into silence and doubt. Let’s be sensitive to the possibility that those we meet during the day are feeling as assaulted by our lawless culture as my friend is, and as we do sometimes. And let’s encourage them to stand strong in the Lord, and in their convictions.
Fuel for Faith 