Dark days are upon us
What to do when hope seems distant
Darkness. Every day the darkness seems a little thicker, doesn't it?
A hurricane that's devastated so many lives in the South and a government that seems to be actively suppressing assistance to the afflicted, while insisting it's out of money to help (which of course it is, since it's been funding things like THIS). Meanwhile another hurricane is set to slam Florida, possibly even worse.
Revelations of the rampant corruption in our federal agencies, like the revolving door between Big Pharma and the agency that's supposed to police it, the FDA.
And these revelations aren't coming from the people who are supposed to be our watchdogs - the "legacy" media - they're coming in spite of the media, and thanks to the few platforms that are open to free speech (like X formerly Twitter, and some names who are too big to be silenced, at least for now - Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly). Trust in the government, and in the media, has cratered into a sinkhole.
And - not entirely unrelated to that big picture, all of us are sicker and fatter than ever before. The federal government subsidizes Big Ag (killing off countless small family farms) to grow just a few crops (corn, soy, wheat) that Big Food turns into ultra-processed garbage that is poisoning us.
And new questions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines - not just the Covid shots, which were disastrous - but the entire history of vaccines in this country is being called into question more widely than ever before, with serious implications for the health of the more than 99% of us who have been vaccinated in one way or another.
Free speech is absolutely under fire - with elites in this country openly calling for censorship to curb people saying things they don't like (what they call misinformation). One of our vice-presidential candidates (hint: not the Republican) has stated that free speech as outlined in the First Amendment is a privilege and that it does not apply to misinformation and hate speech - which of course, it does. Social media, with few exceptions, has worked hand-in-glove with the Democrats to censor stories they deem dangerous to their election hopes, and that's been happening for years.
Feel hopeless yet?
For a lot of us, there's a tendency to allow ourselves to sink into the darkness. We may remember that God is in control, but we don't really have any hope that He will intervene in our lives. That's probably even more the case when we have a personal problem - a scary diagnosis, a job loss, a family relationship in crisis.
We know God can do great things. He can heal, He can provide, He can restore. But a lot of the time, we're so busy preparing for the worst that we don't consider His goodness toward us. Author Glenna Marshall says:
“Once something has gone significantly and horribly wrong in life, we look for ways to prevent its return in any form. Expecting the worst in life seems like a practical way to live. Isn't it preparatory and wise to protect your heart from future pain? Maybe. Do you only expect God to bring about pain but never joy? Disaster but never comfort? Suffering but never peace? Spending your life looking for the worst to happen means living without hope.”
She goes on to call this "waiting for the other shoe to drop" thinking, and notes it is characterized by asking questions like - What if God never fixes this? What if He lets me suffer? What if I lose this person?
“But, I'd like to pose another question when life is hard and you're fearful for the future. What if he's faithful? Instead of immediately defaulting to all the potential disasters, what if we take our thoughts captive and force them to settle down into the 100% likelihood of who God will be to us no matter how hard life gets? Ask yourself a new question. When the diagnosis is given, when the news is dire, when the loss is deep, when the bank account is empty — what if God is not far away and concerned? What if He's... faithful?”
Glenna offers a host of good questions to ask once we've taken our thoughts captive as we're instructed in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
What if He carries you?
What if He's at work in a million unseen ways?
What if He's teaching you to trust Him?
What if He's protecting you from sin?
What if He's growing your faith?
What if He's anchoring your hope in heaven rather than on earth?
And - what if He's keeping His promise to make all things work for good in the end?
Let's take every thought captive. Let's discipline ourselves and our minds, and remember who we are - and who He is.
What if He's faithful? Because He is. I urge you to read Glenna's whole article here - especially if you need a little help asking the right questions, right about now.