2020 – The Cusp
A Possible Cultural Turning Point
Our future is, of course, in God’s hands. However, I believe we are “on the cusp”. If you say that someone or something is on the cusp, you mean they are between two states, or are about to be in a particular state.
If God’s people will get off their duffs, stop living complacently, get themselves right with God first, then guide their families likewise, 2020 can be a turning point like 1960 was.
It was in the 1960’s that massive drug abuse began; families began deteriorating; promiscuity became rampant both those in marriage and outside of marriage. “Free love” turned out to be a path to venereal disease, broken homes and broken people.
Parents forgot that demanding respect from their children was a teaching device; that if they have no respect for the ones who gave them life, they will not respect other people or institutions. That respect is absolutely necessary for a civil society.
Government, especially the courts, went on a binge of progressivism and by the end of the 20th Century, we were headed for an “anything goes” culture. Now, in 2019, we’ve almost reached the point of no return – without a major catastrophe on a national or international scale. No one sane could want that!
The results of the last 50 years have been devastating to our culture:
- The educational establishment has become more a day-care system than a place for real education. The syndrome runs from pre-school through graduate degrees.
- Our churches have become even more like social gatherings than places of worship and centers for learning the Bible and the meaning of life. Attendance and memberships have fallen. Pastors, elders, deacons and other church leaders have stopped growing and helping their congregations to grow.
- Our elected officials have become even more corrupt than that normal with those who achieve power over others. They openly lie during campaigns and anytime they have to meet voters face-to-face. They lie even more when they get to Washington, D.C.
- There is no longer any single source for news than can be trusted. Most of the managers, reporters and writers no longer even pretend to try for objectivity but rather spend their broadcast, Internet and writing efforts pushing a political agenda.
- Openly discussing the problems in our culture is a “walking on eggshells” experience. Saying the “wrong thing” at the wrong time can cost us our employment, our friends and sometimes even members of our family.
- With the Internet, gaming devices, cell phones and social media, many – both young and old – have virtually stopped making friends except electronically. Hiding behind an electronic signature frees the decadent and deceitful to deteriorate even more.
- Many who were once at least part-time Christians have moved more into the secular world and have stopped growing spiritually. Those still actively participating are greeted in our churches with the same words (good words but redundant) they’ve heard hundreds of times before.
It is said – and it’s true – that when you stop growing you begin dying.
Has God turned away from His people? Absolutely not! But we have turned away from Him.
The good news is that many things point to a spiritual awakening among God’s people.
It could begin with the New Year and within 12 months, we’ll know whether God’s people are truly interested in making things better. It will take time but we CAN do it!
If each of God’s people will make a “New Year’s Resolution” to first: get our own lives straight; second – as much as possible – reach out to our families both near and extended and our friends and neighbors – and let them know that we love them; third – let everyone know that we face the future with optimism – not by what we say but how we live. Love and kindness and prayer have exponential good effects.
If God’s people will talk to Him and ask Him to save our nation and our culture, and then do all that we can do to make this world a better place, He will bless us even more. He will show us how to move our nation, our culture, our children and grandchildren into a better world.
