Sending Out An SOS

Ground control to Major Tom:

I live among a people that are indoctrinated with happiness, comfort and success.  A people who have been inoculated with an inert version of the Gospel that has no power to save and only serves to immunize them towards the power of the one that does.  

I live among a people who do not realize that, for the most part, the devil does not deceive and ensnare us with bad things, but with good things.  He drowns us in an avalanche of good things so that we cannot climb our way up to the best thing.  He blinds us with good things, he offers us good things and we take them and settle for them, completely unaware that there are better things.  

Then when we are told that there are better things, we don’t want them because we are comfortable with our good things.  When we are told that we will have to sacrifice our good things for better things, we are not interested because sacrifice is uncomfortable and our good things keep us comfortable.  

Why should we endeavor to hold onto a rusty nail when we can hold onto our comfort?  Why should we strive for a splinter of wood when we can receive prosperity and blessing?  Why should we share in the sufferings of Christ when our innocuous gospel says we don’t have to?  Our innocuous gospel keeps us safe and happy and our faith is in its promise that safety, happiness and comfort are the meaning of life.

 

I don’t write this for my generation, because my generation rejects it.  I write this for a generation to come, as a warning, as a plea, with hope that another generation to come will have the wisdom and humility to receive it and benefit from it. 

This is ground control to Major Tom:  the devil didn’t overcome my generation with sorrow and suffering, he overcame my generation with happiness and comfort.  With prosperity and blessing.  We didn’t lose this battle because we fought hard and lost.  We didn’t lose this battle because we fought a superior foe.  We lost this battle because we didn’t fight at all.  Because the enemy convinced us that we didn’t have to.  Because the enemy became our friend.