Can we really make the world a better place, why do we think
can, and what makes us think we should even try to make the world better?
Most graduations this month will include some young, bright-eyed rising-star
who will boldly stand behind a podium emblazoned with their school’s seal, and
with great passion, with an emotion filled plea, they will say what borders
upon a cliché, “It’s up to our generation to go out from here today, and make
the world a better place tomorrow...”
Certainly, this desire to make the world a better place
isn’t only for young. I think many politicians (at least maybe early on
in their careers) share these ambitions too. Most people who are in a
serving or caring industry certainly seem to want to make the world better for
those they are caring for.
But still, is it possible to make this world better?
Why do we think we can improve the world?
There’s a problem with many of our improvements, they
usually are shortsighted, and, they create some collateral damage along the
way. When we tinker in one area, we usually disrupt another. Often
times, our mistakes are revealed only by those who follow us in a later
generation, and their solutions to resolve our problems, well, they establish
yet another set of difficulties for those who will follow them.
It’s kind of like solving problems with the H-Bomb, which
was supposed to peacefully end World War 2, but look at what nuclear armament
has done to us in the years since. Is the world safer or more peaceful
since the advent of nuclear weapons?
It’s not that we are inherently evil or bent on making
mistakes, but we seem to perpetually generate more and more chaos as time goes
on. Progress, whatever that may look like in your eyes, is a moving
target, and we seem to miss the target more than we hit it.
It’s one thing to want to make the world a better place,
it’s another to realize or ignore our limitations. Perhaps, our inability
to recognize we are imperfect is hindering our path forward. Imperfect
people will hardly be able to create perfection, or achieve some sort of
Utopia, yet, most public figures promise “results” are within reach.
I want to be optimistic and I want to see pain alleviated,
poverty stricken down, hunger eradicated, health improved, and peace between
all people to be reached. Have you noticed though, with every effort and
with each generation, we are left with more problems and greater strife?
I think there’s a reason we long for a better world. I
think instinctively we all, religious, believers, atheists, and disbelievers
alike, I think we know without being told we come from Eden. I think it’s
hardwired in our inner beings to know we weren’t created for this present world
which is filled with hatred, evil, and death. Just like no one has to
tell the Monarch butterfly to migrate, no one has to tell us to search for a
Promised Land.
So what gets in the way of us reaching perfection? We
have personal agendas, we’re envious, we hold grudges, we have pride issues, we
have a hard time cooperating with others, we are judgmental, suspicious, and we
think we are smarter than we are. But beyond that, we are in a fallen
world that is infested with evil, we are in a realm that is under the sway of
and held captive by the demonic. As John writes in I JN 5:19, “We know
that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
We can’t afford to give up, yet we are facing impossible
odds to overcome. And on top of this, Scriptures seem to allude to the
idea that things will go from bad to worse as time goes on. So what
should we do? Hunker down and circle the wagons till the Cavalry rescues
us? Seclude ourselves from the world and hide in cloistered monasteries?
I think we would be better served acknowledging where the real
battle lies, as in what is revealed in Eph 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly places.” And, we’d be better served not trying to face
this spiritual battle on our own strength or by our own methods.
Will this world be a better place someday? Maybe not
until Christ returns. Can we create a little heaven here on earth in the
meantime? Jesus didn’t instruct us to riot, boycott, protest or fight, or
debate everyone on Facebook... instead, He indicated we ought to pray something
like, “Your will be done, your Kingdom come, on earth as it is...” and He said
something about treating others as we’d like to be treated, and, He said to
love our neighbors just like we love ourselves. I’d say starting along
these lines should give us a fighting chance.
