Confusion and “the Gray”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize recipient for literature, following his exile from Russia and his salutary reception into the United States, was invited to speak at Harvard University.[1] Solzhenitsyn, having considered darksome developments in his country of origin, had written of “the moral cancer at [its] very heart”. “Looking at the ruins of the history of the 20th century” this thinker set forth his question to the audience at Harvard—“you ask how all this could’ve happened.” His succinct critique: “‘Men have forgotten God’”.[2]
This notable response gives pause for serious contemplation. How applicable is this assessment to the immediate past decades? Is such “forgetting” an inevitable repetitive spiral for the human family down the generations? What do we learn from the record of the holy Scriptures? Pondering Solzhenitsyn’s statement, where are numerous cultures in our times?
Can our human family offer a coherent and rational defense?
Does it meet criteria of authentic logic for living human beings to forget—and more—to rebel against their Maker? Where is the place, the stance of wisdom as regards this question?
For those with several years of adult life behind them it is an insightful exercise to personally ponder a past decade or other significant time block. What has been the major spiritual disposition and direction for one’s life? What has been the overarching passion or passions? How have such passions guided life agenda and goals? As regards deep life meaning, human flourish, constructive endeavor and achievement, how does it all appear as viewed from the Creator’s perspective? How has one’s life taken new levels in its relating to the Almighty? Or, in this assessment, how has this life failed in relation to Creator design and what have been the consequences? And in the longer term, what will be the significance of how our lives have been lived as we approach the end of the earthly journey?
Considering a specific of Creator design and purpose as given us in the Scriptures, I find this statement and its underlying premise insightful:
“God is not the author of confusion . . .
. . . but of shalom” (1 Cor 14:33, TLV).
Clarity, shalom is God’s design. From whence then is flowing the major confusion prevailing in numbers of the Western cultures of our times? How have we arrived at this place in culture when clarity, victory in our relationship with God seems often to no longer be considered even a possibility for the conversation?
I reflectively ponder not only my life, but turn those ponderings to the future, particularly to the prevailing breezes that have become now gale force “contrarian-to-God” winds in numerous twenty-first century societies. How do my children and grandchildren remain unconfused? How do they grasp the Creator’s intent for a free, open, victorious relationship with Him in a culture where a major agenda from another playbook is pressed—and that now daily?
Only a few years prior we would not have dreamed of such feeds from the internet:
- Do not check that box male or female on Facebook just yet. There are now fifty-eight gender options listed for you to choose.[3]
- No problem. Whichever gender you feel you are today, let us know, and you can go to that assigned gender’s bathroom.[4]
- It’s just natural. I am a Christian, and I am gay. The Bible doesn’t ever say that is a problem.[5]
Clearly, those are only a few examples. In the midst of such an imposed agenda, what are our young people to believe?
The Scriptures speak to us of the Creator design.
Wholeness, human flourish, victory over the enemy and over the nature of sin.
How incredibly powerful is the atoning sacrifice of our Christus Victor! The way is provided. “How deep the Father’s love for us”! How can huge sectors of our societies shrug off provision for the highest living to be known—yes, even in our broken world?
Our world, particularly in Western cultures, has become increasingly spiritually beclouded. Dense fog has settled. It seems so many grope in a heavy gray. Where is the beautiful light of clear victory, of wholeness, as provided for our human family by Christ?
The enemy of our lives asserts another agenda. Doubting the Creator, seeking answers by humanistic thinking. The enemy’s agenda comes from a different playbook. How incredibly active in today’s world!
I wrote in a blog post earlier in the year regarding my boyhood love of the electric train; of those wonderful times on the floor with Dad and the train. As a youngster I was quite aware that if that train was to move with freedom, to make progress, it had to progress on the track. Off the rails for which it was designed, it would spin or bog down.
I still enjoy our Father’s way–of light and truth, His designed shalom!
His track is best: it brings the greatest freedom. 
It shines more and more unto His perfect day! (Prov. 4:18)
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[1] Referred to by Mohler as “the center of American secular thought”. “The Briefing” 27 Oct 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Russell Goldman, “Here’s a Lis of 58 Gender Options for Facebook Users,” ABCNews.com, published February 13, 2014, as reported by Lisa Cherry in Like a Flood: Live Boldly. Love Truthfully. Stand Fearlessly. In a Post-Christian America (Sapulpa, OK: Honor Net Publishers, 2016), 2, footnote p. 225. Noted: accessed October 21, 2015, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/heres-a-list-of-58-gender–options-for-facebook-users/.
[4] Valerie Richardson, “Houston transgender bathroom bill debate centers on differing definitions of ‘men’,” published October 5, 2015, accessed October 21, 2015, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/5/houston-transgender-bathroom-bill-debate-centers-o/. Quoted in Cherry, Like a Flood, 2, footnote p. 225.
[5] Matthew Vines, MatthewVines.com. Quoted in Cherry, Like a Flood, 2, footnote p. 225.
