Is Light Dimming and Darkness Winning? 2. Time to Wake Up!

The world is changing around us at a steady pace.  However, our awareness of change is usually clouded from our view because it occurs slowly and incrementally.  A fitting analogy is that we can barely detect the movement of the minute hand on a clock as it measures the progression of time.  But it moves unrelentingly forward nonetheless.  Likewise, the darkness before dawn contrasts sharply with the noonday sun.  However, the human eye cannot detect the gradual brightening of the dawn as time passes unless we snap photos periodically and compare them.  Similarly, our personal maturation in body, mind, spirit, and character; and our mastery of manual and athletic skills all occur gradually with much patience and endurance.  

Our mirrors remind us that our faces are wrinkling and our hair is thinning.  Thankfully, these changes occur so gradually that they are unnoticed by us, and even by our friends who assure us that we “haven’t changed a bit.”  But, all flattering aside, few of us deny that our bodies “they are a changing.”  So are the times in which we live.  Although one day may be the same as the next, still our calendars all have special days.  We celebrate events like births, marriages, and graduations, while others like hospitalizations and deaths of loved ones can be sudden “wake-up calls.”  Whether they bring joy or sadness, we can benefit from pausing to reflect on both our celebrations and our sudden “wake-up calls.”

“Wake-Up Calls”
This article is Part 2 of “Is Light Dimming and Darkness Winning?”  In Part 1 we described three “Christmas Contrasts.”  These contrasts become evident when we consider two major groups of people and how they celebrate Christmas.  While many celebrate Christmas with lights and gifts, only one of the groups knows the true meaning of these traditions.  Sadly, the other group misses this joy because they do not know Jesus personally as the “Light of the World” and “God’s greatest Gift”—i.e. Everlasting Life in Him-- forever (John 3).

Just as there are two ways to celebrate Christmas, so there are two major views of time.  The Apostle Peter describes one view, expressed by the mockers who ask, “Where is the promise of His [Christ’s] coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation (2 Peter 3: 4).”  This view resembles that of deism.  Deists will acknowledge a Creator God, but believes God has wound up the clock of time and then simply allows events to play themselves out in the world without His intervention.  Peter goes on to say that those who hold this view of a non-intervening God have forgotten that God does intervene and even directs the human drama.  To make his point, Peter reminds deniers of the time in which the world was destroyed, being flooded with water (2 Peter 3: 6b).  The historical reality of a world-wide flood at the time of Noah is supported by geological studies.

The span of “geological history” suggests there were long periods without evidence of change.  But these periods of stasis were markedly disrupted by events such as volcanic eruptions, changes in sea level, and climate change.  We should note that not all geologists today believe that “long periods of time” amounted to billions of years.  

Young-Earth geologists like Dr. John Whitmore, a professor at Cedarville University, have published scientific data [See HERE.] and given talks [See HERE.] explaining that the supposed “long geologic periods” are in fact not so long.  John’s studies of the geology of places like the Grand Canyon and Mt. St. Helens suggest evidence that these geologic formations have resulted from short-term cataclysmic events that caused massive movement and deposition of sediments followed soon by erosion on a grand scale.  Dr. Whitmore integrates his findings with the biblical revelation to explain these events.  [See “Does Science Trump Theology in the Pursuit of Truth?”  Click HERE.]

The biblical timeline of human history corroborates the geologic and archeological data and together they affirm the reality of God’s interventions of judgment and deliverance.  The peace and perfection of the Garden of Eden was interrupted when Adam and Eve chose to disbelieve and dishonor God’s Word, allowing sin and Satan to bring corruption into creation.  Later, God’s judgment upon the descendants of Adam and Eve came through the flood in which only Noah, his wife, and family were spared.  To date, this global flood must have been a tremendous “wake-up” call.   After the flood, God introduced Noah and family to a world that had been greatly altered geologically, ecologically, and meteorologically during and after the global flood. 

When the descendants of Noah became corrupted and brought great violence and turmoil upon the Earth, God called Abraham to leave his heathen civilization.  By faith, Abraham believed God’s promise that He would make of his descendants into a new nation.  The Abrahamic Covenant led to creation of the nation of Israel whose long history of change was characterized by gradual descent into sin and repeated warnings by God’s prophets, eventually punctuated by God’s abrupt judgment and deliverances.

One of the most noteworthy of God’s judgments upon the Southern Kingdom of Israel (i.e. Judah) occurred around 600 BC.  The prophet Isaiah warned Ahaz, king of Judah, that if Judah followed in the idolatry and rebellion of the Northern Kingdom which was eventually conquered by Assyria, they would also face God’s judgment.  But Judah did not heed the prophet’s wake-up calls, and after Isaiah’s time they fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC.  Those Israelites who survived a long siege of Jerusalem were carried off to endure a 70-year exile in Babylon.  Isaiah had not only predicted the Babylonian captivity before he died, but boldly challenged God’s Chosen people to be ready to return to the Holy Land after their captivity had ended.  The the nation of Israel would then exist for 400 years with no revelation from God before the announcement of the coming of Christ whose humble birth is the central reference point for how we mark time in years on our calendars.

A "Wake-Up Call" for 2024
Our focus has been on the theme of “gradual changes over time, punctuated by “wake-up calls.” 
We have noted that this pattern is evident throughout human history and even in geological history.  Finally, we have seen that it matters to God how we respond to His commands and to the apparent “interruptions” that He allows in the progression of time. But before we conclude, we should realize that, as we enter 2024, this year has the potential to be the most turbulent year history has known, at least in recent times.  How many "wake-up calls" could be in store for us in 2024?

We would like to think that readers of Oikonomia are regularly attentive to national and world news.  For these informed readers, we need only to mention a series of key words and you would almost immediately be able to give an impromptu explanation of how each could be a "powder keg" for a major national or global "wake-up call."  Below is our listing which is not exhaustive:

Add to these disturbing developments the warning we conveyed in Part 1 of "Is Light Dimming and Darkness Winning?" [Click HERE.]  Recall, we referenced the book by Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church (Salem Books, 2022) in which this author warns the American Church that it is following the same path as the German Church in the 1930's which was largely silent in the face of the rise of Adolph Hitler.

Taken together our listing of sources of "wake-up calls" is enough to keep us up at night.  It is not our intent to push us into panic mode.  Instead, we each need to be alert in mind, body, and spirit and vigilant to maintain our individual love and obedience to God and our integrity toward our neighbor.  If this article serves to awaken us to the urgency of our times and be more committed to the Commission given by Jesus Christ (Matthew 28: 18-20), we will have succeeded. 

Starting Strong in 2024
As 2024 begins, how can we prepare to respond to God’s “wake-up calls?”  As part of our own New Year meditations in Scripture, we have written a series of eight short devotional meditations based on our study of Isaiah Chapter 52.  We encourage you to visit “Eight Devotional Meditations for the New Year” by clicking HERE.   We hope your reading, study, and prayer over each of these meditations will help to “awaken you” in mind, body, and spirit as you begin this New Year.  To start "Day 1" of the devotional series, click HERE.

Earth Stewardship and Human Aging

My transition from full time employment to what I am calling a redirection has allowed me some time to consider how God might use me in this new chapter of life.  I have already blogged on this subject, in 2011 and 2012.  Just search Oikononia using the keyword, redirection.

In the past two years, health matters in our family have been front and center.  Abby and I have made frequent visits to the Golden Age Retreat in Carrollton, OH where Marietta Moser, Abby’s mother (and thankfully, mine by marriage) is a resident.  During our visits with “Mom,” we have met other residents who have entered this dependent stage of their lives.  Most have severe limitations in mobility, continence, mental alertness, and communication.  Yet, each of them can express traits of their personality that shine through their worn, wrinkled faces and stooped postures, reflecting who they were in their younger days. 

Until her debilitating stroke in 2011, “Mom” had resided in a small home in Kilgore, Ohio where she and her husband, Don, had lived since the late 1940’s.  During those years, she was committed to the task of raising seven daughters and pointing them to faith in God through her words and actions.  “Mom” always lovingly served family and friends who came into her home.   She also provided a godly example to her husband for 33 years of their marriage, and he finally found peace with God through faith in Christ during the final months of his life.  Since “Dad’s” death in 1980, “Mom” has lived another 33 years as a widow.  Now, confined to wheelchair and short ventures with a walker, her heart still pours forth kindness and generosity toward fellow residents, and to her family and friends who visit.  Though sadness and loneliness must creep over her at times like darkening shadows, her face brightens upon our arrival, and her smile is still beautiful when we speak of fond memories of days gone by.

Our fast-paced, “get it now” culture tends to devalue older adults who speak with difficulty, move slowly, and spill their food and drink.  Yet, I’m learning that it can be a blessing to become acquainted with the elder folks at Golden Age.  Taking time to greet them with at least a smile, and where possible with words, often brings a smile and greeting in return.  Wrinkles, blemishes, and soiled bibs sometimes create a dreary atmosphere, but brightened faces shine forth amid any apparent dreariness like the faces in Rembrandt’s paintings.  Instead of wondering about who they once were, I’m inspired by who they are.

Having reflected on the joy that still radiates from Marietta Moser and others who reside at Golden Age, I wonder “how then, I should be living” so as not to have a dismal, joyless existence if I should be allowed to enter into this period of dependency in life.  Such pondering brings me to yet another facet of that important concept of stewardship.  Biblical stewardship reminds us that God is Owner and Master, and we are His servant stewards to whom He has entrusted all that we have.  If this is true, then the Apostle Paul’s questions apply to any stage of our lives:

For who regards you as superior?
What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it,
why do you boast as if you had not received it? – 2 Corinthians 4: 8

Stewardship means that we view our responsibility as managers of time, talents, and treasures at every stage of our lives.  As children our parents taught us elementary lessons of stewardship when they encouraged us to share “our toys” with other children or return toys to the toy box or shelf when we were finished.   It follows that stewardship that is nurtured and applied by God’s grace and truth can keep us on a trajectory that is appropriate for every stage of life.  After all, the lessons of the playroom or pre-school also apply to the workplace and profession of adulthood.  All that differs is the kind of “toys” we choose to accumulate, how many “toys”, and how we choose to share them.

A stewardship mindset applied to human health itself explains how older adults can still have joy when they become dependent on others for nearly everything.  While there are genetic factors and events beyond our control as we age, with God’s help it is within our stewardship responsibility to thank Him each day for our health and for the food, shelter, and support system upon which we are very dependent.  Again, the Apostle Paul, writing to young Timothy, gives helpful instruction to us (1 Timothy 6: 7-11):

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

Happiness is not about accumulating wealth any more than spirituality is about living a monastic existence.  Abraham and Job show us how men of great wealth can also walk closely to God and be a blessing to man.  But Jesus taught us that …from everyone who has been given much, much will be required…(Luke 12: 48).  The one who holds his or her “toys” and other possessions loosely and generosity during their “active years” will more likely be inclined to release  them peaceably and even thoughtfully when it’s time to enter a state of dependent living.

Chuck Dolph, senior professor of psychology at Cedarville University, supports the notion that aging need not be the dreaded part of life.   Rather, for the Christian, aging is a valuable season with meaning and purpose along life’s path to a glorious eternity with God.  In his article, “Thank God for Aging” (Torch magazine, Spring-Summer, 2007), Chuck beautifully expresses how aging can help us apply the truth of Psalm 90 which reminds us of the finiteness of our lives on Earth; and therefore, the need to number our days, That we may present to You [God] a heart of wisdom (v. 12).  He writes:

We must not forget that there is always meaning and purpose, even in aging and illness.  Aging strips us.  If we live long enough, we will lose our beauty, our strength, our wealth, our independence, the control of our bodily functions, our pride, and perhaps our very self.  These are our idols, all the things that we trust in life to make us attractive, valuable, and self-sufficient.

If our aging is successful, we will end our lives striped of everything but God, totally naked and helpless, utterly dependent on Him and the love of others.  Everything that we trusted in life for our worth will have been stripped away.  

Dr. Dolph concludes, What a blessing to finally find our right relationship to God!  Thank God for aging. 

For the Christian steward, the reality of aging can be a North Star of sorts to which he or she can chart a trajectory during the “younger years.”   This trajectory is based on an awareness that all we have belongs to God, and part of our stewardship can be a Spirit-led, creative adventure of discovering how to use our time, talents, and treasures in accordance with each stage of life.  

Returning to the Golden Age Retreat, in Carrollton, OH, I am reminded of one of the residents whose name is “George” (not his real name).  George ambles slowly with the help of a walker on wheels.  He speaks slowly and explains that his hands are affected by arthritis.  But his smile brightens when I ask him to play some tunes with his harmonica.    See YouTube Video.

As I conclude this article, I thank God for both Marietta Moser and my friend, George.  Both of them are teaching me how to set a trajectory on my path toward eternity; one that holds loosely and manages wisely what God has entrusted to me.  Folks like Marietta and George have little left to manage, but what they do have brings praise to their Creator.  The sweet musical notes from George’s harmonica bless all who hear them there on the porch of Golden Age Retreat before they float out across the quiet countryside and off into the heavens above.