Faith in a World of Trouble

            It isn’t hard to look at the news these days and to think that we live in perilous times.  There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by that doesn’t involve one nation or another crossing swords with each other; or some kind of terrible plane crash that takes many lives; or even the crime in our streets that seems at times to be of epic proportions.  Why can’t we seem to live together without creating so much violence?  Some of this is the fault of the news media that seems to be focused mainly on OMG moments in our culture.  Breaking News! seems to be the order of the day.  What newscast goes on without some kind of event that is designed to get our attention, or to create a large headline.  It seems to be what the media is all about. 

            I don’t think that the times are as dire as it would appear.  When the followers of Jesus began their work after the resurrection, there were no guarantees of their safety.  As a matter of fact, most of them were killed in the furtherance of their ministry.  Only John, who died on Patmos after writing Revelation seems to have escaped being killed for his faith.  I am particularly struck by Paul’s experience, finally arrested, imprisoned and ultimately beheaded, he left behind him a remarkable collection of statements that tell of a faith that is beyond what most of us understand.  I look at what he wrote in the eighth chapter of Romans: 

                            For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are

                         accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.  No, in all these

                         things we are more than conquerors through him who

                         loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

                         nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,

                         nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all

                         creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God

                         in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:37-39

            That is a lesson for me as I look at my more or less comfortable life and consider all of the people around me who are in one kind of difficulty or another.  All of these nations at war; all of these people in peril or who have lost loved ones; all of them are still within the love of God that Paul speaks about in this passage.  Nothing can separate us from the Love of God, says Paul.  This was a message to his followers who were being pursued for their faith constantly.  It is also a message to all of us who are living in a difficult world.   We are loved infinitely by our God who sent Jesus to live among us and to die at our hand so that that Love could be clearly seen.  It is easy to forget the resurrection when we only look at death.  There is more to this creation than simply living life in this world.  We are meant for better things.  That is what the followers of Jesus clearly knew when they went out to do their work.  It is what we need to remember also as we do ours.