The Thread We All Cling too…

The world is going to hell in a hand basket, so the old saying goes.

It seems that, day by day, the news is getting worse.

Terrorists, refugees, wars, rumours of wars, dead babies, drugs and more and more… And many people are scared, worried, anxious and more than a few have an opinion on the whole thing. And everyone has an idea on what will fix that which ails the world.

Ideologies are being thrown around like bandages to the wounded…

The left says get rid of guns! Let refugees in!

The right says, arm everyone, deny the refuges!

Conservatives blame Liberals; Liberals blame Christians and guns; Christians blame liberals and “islamists”, Muslims blame the islamist extremists…Some blame climate change…

And we all butt heads…

Or rather we butt digital avatars behind the safety of our social media profiles…

And all the reactionary rhetoric on social media from both sides has a single unifying thread joining it all together, if you look close enough.

Do you see it?

Regardless of which point on the political spectrum that they sit they are all holding onto that thread.

That thread is that they are looking for comfort.

We are people who want to be safe. We all want to be safe. Both right and left and those in the middle, the Christian and the Muslim and the Jew and the atheist…we all want safety. It is why the refugees flee. It is why some take up arms. It is why some want guns to go away…

We want to live in comfort.

So where do we find comfort?

Some look for it in their success, their jobs, their promotions.

Some try to find comfort in their families and friends.

Others in their possessions, money, cars, houses, vacations.

Others find it in doing good works, volunteering, political activism and the like.

Others find comfort in the police, the FBI or RCMP, or the military strength of their nation, or their right to bear arms.

And others give up and look to comfort in the bottle, or the needle, or in porn, or sex…

And if we are looking for comfort in any of these places, as good as some of these things are, we will never find true comfort.

Let me ask, “What is your only comfort in life and death?”

I know you know the answer. If you are a believer, you do. We know the answer, and the world needs to hear it. The world needs to know where to find this comfort that they so long for. But it is a foolish comfort to them. It so antithetical to what this individualistic world believes, because my comfort is that I am not my own…

Sounds crazy right?

My comfort is in the fact that I belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to someone other than myself.

How is that comforting?

Because the person I belong to is faithful, and just, supremely sovereign.

I belong to Jesus Christ.

As that old Reformation document says, “Jesus has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

Yes the world is full of evil. The shootings that have recently taken place in the name of terror are nothing short of terrifying. But we need not be afraid. Yes, in fact, we can have comfort right now. Wherever we are. For that comfort is not of this world. Nothing can happen to us outside his will. So if we are in Jesus Christ, we can say with Martin Luther,

“And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.”

My only comfort in life and death is that Jesus owns my every breath.

SDG