The path to hope for a better future

What do these stories have in common?

• Last week, China imposed restrictions on the export of rare-earth minerals vital to consumer electronics and the technology industry. President Trump responded by threatening additional 100 percent tariffs on China starting November 1.
• Al Qaeda is on the rise in nuclear-armed Pakistan, part of a growing terrorism hub that it is organizing in South and Central Asia.
• Hamas is pursuing what the New York Times calls a “bloody crackdown” on its rivals in Gaza as it seeks to assert its dominance in the territory.
• Russia is intensifying its strikes on Ukraine’s trains in a “battle for the railways.”
• Sarah Mullally was recently appointed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Church’s history.

The answer: each is acting morally as they define morality.

• Xi Jinping and Donald Trump both want their country to be the global leader in high-tech and manufacturing and are acting in their nation’s perceived self-interest.
• Al Qaeda sees itself as the true vanguard of Islamist insurgents and seeks to unite foreign fighters into a global movement.
• According to the Palestinian political analyst John Aziz, Hamas views the cease-fire in Gaza as hudna, “a temporary truce with non-Muslim adversaries that can be discarded as soon as the balance of power shifts.”
• Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of Ukraine’s national rail operator, explains Russia’s recent attacks as “part of a war tactic meant to cause panic among civilians, destroy our economy, and make the country unlivable.” This, in Vladimir Putin’s mind, would hasten Ukraine’s capitulation and thus “secure” Mother Russia from European and Western aggression.
• Sarah Mullally’s appointment not only endorses women; she led the Anglican Church’s move two years ago to bless same-sex couples, a position her ascension endorses as well.

I often quote my friend John Stonestreet’s maxim: Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. But when “bad” by definition is what the other side believes and “good” is what I believe, when there is no north on the compass because no one believes in compasses, where is there hope for a better future?

“On the soul thick midnight lies”

The British hymnwriter Francis Turner Palgrave spoke for our confused culture:

Whilst Thy will we would pursue
Oft what we would we cannot do.
The sun may stand in zenith skies
But on the soul thick midnight lies.

Where, then, is our hope? He continued:

O Lord of lights, tis Thou alone
Canst make our darkened hearts Thine own.

When we make Christ our Lord and choose to live by his word and will, we not only understand the truth—we experience “the Truth” (John 14:6). God’s Spirit dwells in us and will “guide [us] into all the truth” (John 16:13, my emphasis).

This is one of the many ways Christianity is unlike the various world religions. Buddhists do not believe Buddha lives within them, nor do Muslims believe Allah indwells their bodies. But Christians know that the Spirit of the living God lives in us as his temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). When we yield to his direction, he uses God’s word to transform our minds and empower our obedience (Romans 12:1–2).

We then become the change we need to see as others are drawn to the truth we live.

St. Augustine noted, “Offer a handful of grass to a sheep and you draw it after you. Show a boy nuts and he is enticed.” He then asked,

What does the mind desire more eagerly than truth? For what does it have an insatiable appetite, why is it anxious that its taste for judging the truth should be as healthy as possible, unless it is that it may eat and drink wisdom, righteousness, truth, and eternal life?

The closer we are to Jesus, the more we manifest his character as his Father answers his Son’s prayer for us: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Then, like Jesus, we will “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). And we will pay any price to proclaim, defend, and obey that truth in a broken world deceived by the enemy (1 Peter 3:15–16; 2 Corinthians 4:4).

“Your job is not to be successful”

St. Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of the Apostle John. According to early tradition, it was the Apostle Peter who appointed Ignatius bishop of Antioch, the “home church” of the Apostle Paul (cf. Acts 13:1–4). In AD 107, the Roman Emperor Trajan forced Christians in Antioch to choose death or apostasy; Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to die.

Along his journey to Rome and martyrdom, he wrote seven letters to his fellow Christians urging them to stay faithful to their Lord. One of them was to the church at Rome, where he asked them not to intervene on his behalf:

The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being.

And so it was. On this day, according to tradition, he was thrown into the arena and devoured by two fierce lions. And his faith became sight (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7).

You and I are likely not called to sacrifice our lives for our Lord today. But we are called to obey him sacrificially and unconditionally. So know this: all that he asks, he empowers. As my hometown pastor taught me, God’s will never leads where his grace cannot sustain.

To this end, let’s close with this hopeful reminder from Br. David Vryhof of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston:

Whatever this season of life is bringing you, whatever challenges it puts before you, whatever God is asking of you now—God is with you. God’s power is available to you; God has promised to do God’s work in and through you. Keep in mind that the work is God’s. Your job is not to be successful, but to be faithful.

Will you do your “job” today?

Quote for the day:

“Obedience to God’s will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to do God’s will that brings certainty.” —Eric Liddell

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