Written by Conor Sweetman
The signs of the times seem to be more clear than ever.
As I chat about spiritual matters with baby boomers and above, I hear insinuations that we’re teetering at the brink of the end of the world. The way things are going culturally seems to be a clear indication of the speed and direction that the majority of humankind is heading—think of the title of a famous AC/DC song as a clue for where that might be. I hear despair in the exclamations, “Look at American politics! Look at the agenda of Justin Trudeau! Listen to the music on the radio!”
On the other end of the spectrum, when I have conversations with teens in highschool or early adulthood, I often hear a very different conception of reality. Out of the mouth of adolescents comes “Yeah, things are bad, but we’re making them better. Racism! Sexism! Poverty! We can solve all the problems in our society!” The youth believe in their potential and the power of liking posts on Facebook or retweeting ironic memes. Though sometimes naive, they plan on leaving the world better off than the way they inherited it.
Guess what? Both ways of seeing the world have value and truth.
God does not want us to be a friend to the world. The political, entertainment and education industries are the voices that reveal the dark heart of our generation—or humans in general—since Eve first tasted the bitterness of sin. Yet, despite the very real darkness that makes us want to head for the hills and stick it out until heaven, Jesus seemed to have a pretty involved mission for us based on His infamous Sermon on the Mount.
These two competing visions of purpose and life here on earth get down to the most philosophical question you’ll read in this magazine: Why do we exist? Out of this most fundamental question, we are led to wonder what God wants us to do with this strange existence.
In Love Is Moving issue 29, we’re getting back to the basics of what our beloved saviour, Jesus Christ, has to say about how He’d like to see us live in the world. He has some interesting points that we might need to be reminded of in these weird times.
This issue is packed full of ideas and stories of how to live out those timeless words of Jesus in a very unique cultural moment. What does the sermon on the mount have to say about the world of today?
I’m going to harken back to the cliche but life-altering words of Mother Theresa that drip with the truth of Jesus: “We can’t do any great things, only small things with great love”. Sometimes I think we need to take a step outside our echo chambers, shrink our vision down to size and realize that God doesn’t want us to change the world, he wants us to live with a light burden and focus on loving Him and the people right in front of us.