This year the month of March rests firmly in the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday literally occurs on the first day of the month, and when we turn over our calendars, we still have 16 days to go until Easter. Lent is a time for us to focus on ourselves and our world in relation to God—the One who knows us completely, calls us to live justly and compassionately, and loves us enough to redeem us by the sacrificial grace of Jesus Christ. It is a season for asking “God, how are we doing?” as well as “What could I do better?”
Given that the good news of Jesus has been with us almost 2,000 years, are we doing a better job today of putting the Gospel into practice than we did yesterday? In many ways, we can answer that question in the affirmative. We have a greater sense of the universal nature of God’s realm and the church of Jesus Christ than we did in centuries past. We are doing better at seeing our missionary work as “service with co-workers of the faith” instead of “converting the heathen masses.” And the nature of the global internet means that people in distant lands can read the same devotional books, listen to the same sermons, and discuss aspects of faith with Christians here in America and around the world.
But are we progressing as a human species as well as people of faith? Robert Gordon recently wrote an interesting book called The Rise and Fall of American Growth, in which he argued that the advances from 1870–1970 far overshadow the inventions and advances of the last half century. The late 19th century brought amazing improvements to the quality of life through inventions such as electricity, urban sanitation, and the internal combustion engine. The early 20th century continued this trend through the development of chemicals, medicines, and modern communications. Suddenly electric lights replaced oil lamps, flush toilets replaced outhouses, cars and electric trains replaced horses, and prescription medicine ended the risk of death from common infections.
But in many ways, the great age of inventions is behind us. Air travel and computer technology have connected us more nationally and globally, but it can be argued that, in and of themselves, these advances have not dramatically improved our quality of life. While life expectancies have risen, they have not been evenly distributed across race, gender, and nationality. Surely the investments into wrinkle creams, male baldness cures, and sexual potency drugs could have been better utilized in battling cancer, malaria, and AIDS. Infant mortality remains a troubling issue in both developed and developing nations. Educational standards and workplace improvements are not where we might have hoped, given the great strides made in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lent is when we recommit ourselves to walk beside Christ in his ministry of healing, protecting, and loving God’s creation. It is done with “Easter” hope, even as we recognize how far we still have to travel to reach the “promised land.” Be prayerful in asking, “Lord, what can we do now as your people in the 21st century to offer good news to this world?” Be it through actions or activism, prayers or moral progress, I am very sure God wants both to hear this question and offer us an answer we can take to heart.
–Randy Bush