From Streams to Rivers
Last night I was considering the social state of our society. I know God is present, but from the behavior of His people it doesn’t seem like we’re winning against the onslaught of evilness in the world. I feel like Christians should be affecting the balance of selfishness to selflessness. As in more programs, charities, apparent acts of love on freeways, highways, streets, businesses, schools, grocery stores, day and night. However, I’m not seeing it like that.
As I was considering all this I imagined a stream, trickling over rocks, twigs; even tiny water falls as the stream would flow over 1 or 2 foot drops in ground level. The stream was steady, but almost fragile. I imagined this was the state of the body of Christ in my city, maybe even America, or the world. I thought, “If only we could turn that stream into a river”.
At this thought I remembered a viral video on how reintroducing the wolves back into Yellowstone park had an impact on the climate there. The video suggested it could have been the wolves who balanced the overeating of vegetation by herbivores. Supposedly with more growth beavers were able to use more trees to dam ponds and focus the channels of water, turning streams into rivers.
The video has since been proven not to be accurate. While the wolves did cut the deer and antelope down by 75%, the trees and rivers change was minimal. The lesson to be learned here is that climate is bigger than Yellowstone park’s climate. To change something on a larger basis you need more impact than a pack of wolves. A revival here and there is great for local areas, the influence is impactful and effective – for a while.
Something more than one small revival, maybe a huge revival or several revivals, something history calls “an awakening” needs to take place.
The Bible and views of the Christian life are being suffered by the world and an ungodly society. Real rejection of God is happening all around us. Even those who call themselves Christians are rejecting the word for the sake of self fulfillment, for their pride. Even I have found myself at times ignoring sound doctrine to take part in something that was clearly against the word of God.
With all this being said, my focus and purpose for writing this is to remind myself, and maybe you, that we need to harbor influence. We need to speak the truth, live truth, be the truth. We, Christians, are the light; the world is the darkness. Jesus has passed the torch onto us, even equipping us with his Holy Spirit. Let’s not waste our salvation, let’s embrace it and testify of His goodness, his perfect love. Following Jesus Christ and rejecting all else is how we change a stream into a river.