Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
Recently I read an article in the New York Times entitled, Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does it Just Feel That Way? In the last few weeks I've written about my emotions that things do, indeed, feel unprecedented. But the Times article points out that war is less common than in previous eras, while life expectancy, literacy and standards of living are rising. Hunger, child mortality and extreme poverty have been steadily declining for a long time. Diseases that killed many of our ancestors are vanquished. "There is an argument," says Max Fisher, "albeit one that would only comfort an economist, that today’s crises are both rarer and less severe than those of even the recent past." But we don't notice generational historical trends because they impact developing nations more than ours, and because humans tend to compare themselves to their peers, not their forebears. Further, the Internet seems to magnify far-flung horrors in our psyches. But there is one metric that is steadily declining, which has been raising everybody's anxiety: Democracy. While democracy expanded in the second half of the 20th Century, it began to decline globally about twenty years ago, and in the United States since 2016.
To me, all of this information is a roundabout way of reminding myself that, yes, things feel rough right now. The feeling is very real. But that feeling falls within a bigger story. It's helpful for me to remember that there's always a bigger story than just my experience. That's basic to Christiantiy. We're part of a much bigger story than we can possibly see. We're characters in the great story of the exodus from bondage towards freedom that dominates the Old Testament. We have a role in Jesus's Gospel, helping make this Earth a place where God's will is done. Life can feel really hard, especially these days, but somehow, all of it unfolds within the wider story of God's love.
Stay safe out there, and may God bless you.
Peace,
Stephen