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Crisis a time for change

March

The English novelist Aldous Huxley said the charm of history and its
enigmatic lesson is the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet
everything is completely different.
Is our world in a crisis?
When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters.
One represents danger; the other represents “crucial point.” If indeed we
are at a crucial point, we do have much opportunity to change, to look at
things differently.
A recent financial article documented that we lost 2.6 million jobs in the
United States in 2008. How discouraging that statistic is at first glance, but
when you do some research, you find that more jobs (2.75 million) were
eliminated as war production ended with our victory in World War II. The
1945 statistic is much higher than the 2008 statistic, since our population has
increased since 1945. Yet in 1945 we were ecstatic with joyous optimism
about our future.
Sure, we have a lot of social problems. Abortion has been legal since
1973. There are 15,000 new cases of AIDS daily. Fourteen million people
are alcoholics. Thirteen million Americans are spending about $60 billion on
illegal drugs per year. Drunken drivers caused 17,000 fatalities in 2002. Fear
of being a crime victim is just a part of life for most people. And yes,
terrorism, illegal immigration, endangered species and pollution are current
concerns.
Nothing has changed, yet everything is different. In Egypt, Moses
rescued the Hebrew slaves escaping to the desert, yet the Hebrews were not
happy with their conditions and longed to be slaves once more. The
punishment for Cain, the first murderer, was exile. Today I hear people
talking about moving away from others, not knowing that solitary living is
contrary to what God planned. Just as you should not have only one horse
(you need two for companionship), people are meant to be with one another
(Genesis 2:18).
How can you cope in today’s world of supposed crisis?

* Change yourself.
* Change your attitude.
* Change your mind.
* Become optimistic.