Future Wisdom

The serious evaluators, problem solvers, the persons earning the names of wisdom are often overlooked by the general population.  The media that sometimes present them gain only a little attention, as these serious men and women hold forth on matters of import related to the human condition.  Violators gain more attention – the puckish, celebrity, skeptic, disillusioned, angry, disinterested, self-centered – the list grows long.  We advance in some areas and fall back in others, sometimes recovering in this area and falling back in another – both life changing.  At this writing science is moving along rather well, government is stalled, and social conduct appears to be in decline what with the weakening of the family, the preoccupation with debilitating habits and harried lifestyles with uncertainty about values.  Terrorism is reported daily.

Even so we raise such questions as: Why are generations so influenced by dysfunctional persons, sometimes alcoholic, drug driven celebrity persons taken by secondary ideals often expressed in negative terms?  Part of the answer is found in the media focus on them as dramatic and so gaining the attention of the reader and viewer/listener.  The benefits of good parenting, education, both secular and religious, are often lost.  The consequence is that we are often influenced by rebels (peaceful or activist) who so focus on this or that factor without taking into consideration the whole of the context of mankind.  They point at problems without finding sensible solutions related to holistic (cohesive) contexts.

Nearly all common citizens know that individuals and societies need values.  They sense that those values need to be lived out.  It is not enough to believe.  Persons must act in integrity (right/righteousness). They would like to avoid hypocrisy found in both good and bad people, but they may find themselves doing what they deplore – sometimes in themselves but commonly in others.  The answer is in gaining and adopting integrity in our lives, and improving on that factor to the point of self-control for our own good and that of others.  If we don’t gain it sufficiently well, we will not do well enough in the larger strokes of our lives, even in social movements that touch the lives of the masses.  We know, for example, that the cavalier way in which the society is treating marriage bonds and family (children) is leading to untold suffering and broken lives.  To carry that further, the cost of funding our expectations, the complexities of our ways, and the conflicts we create make fools of us in the efforts of governments torn with debt and confusion.

For the Christian, there is or ought to be strong belief in common grace.  Common grace serves all people, – for anyone choosing to adapt to it.  Common grace does not differentiate us, is not prejudiced to the world’s population.  Any person or society may drink from that well.  All people can be accommodated when some general standards are kept.  These standards kept do not promise an ultimate heaven, but they do promise currency found in a satisfactory mortality, and a kind of pleasure that is natural in extent under law.  Society is supposed to master all that, aided by God even when he is not invited to the party.  The follies we find in society are in mankind, not in the creation.  The creation is adequate to purpose.

The Christian should keep clear to faith, thought and practice that divine grace, which offers redemption beyond the rewards of common grace, and goes far beyond the common grace of decency and freedom for mankind on earth.  The first duty of the Christian in common grace context is to identify with the will and plan of God.  That is done by witness to Christian faith to all persons in love and peace; to devote effort to Christian lifestyle and proper model of life conduct; to prayer and service to mankind wherever mankind is found; to educate listeners about the values and principles of God’s kingdom beyond the earthly creation, but impinging upon it in common grace; and, to accept that treatment given by society to the Christian person or community whether affirmative or negative in the treatment.  If the humanistic context is to be evaluated and judged negatively or affirmatively it is not for the Christian community to accomplish on its own.  The Christian purpose is affirmative.  God is the only true adjudicator.  Christians are involved as they are permitted to be in problem solving for others – so to serve.  Christians should seek opportunities.