Light in darkness

Ben Stein, of Ferris Bueller fame ("Bueller? Bueller?) and more recently as a philosopher and culture barometer, penned a lament in the days following our recent national tragedy. A worthy read you can find here. At the end of his piece he grieves,

"Man is made of such crooked stuff that it is impossible to set him straight, said a famous philosopher."

Paul sketched with the same charcoal black when he told the church at Rome, "None is righteous. No, not one" (Romans 3:10). I mentioned to a friend that such hellishness does not surprise me any longer. What surprises me anymore is when I see philanthropy.

In the world there is no objective, concrete hope.

But then Jesus said, "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

This isn't some fairy-tale platitude to salve our psychological selves. It is truth.

Left to myself, I will ever wrestle the demons within. Paul cried in that same letter, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). That is not abnormal. It is the normal human condition. Some of us restrain the beast better than others, but this God-rebel dominates our lives.

Only one thing can supplant this beast.

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ~ Jesus (Matthew 11:28)

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has past away; behold the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

"For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (5:21)

"I have been crucified (past tense) with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith (TRUST) in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Therein, Mr. Stein, is our only hope for straightening the crooked human condition.

Merry Christmas.