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We Don't Pay Attention Until Something Goes Wrong

We're more vulnerable than we think.

The headlines this week reminded me of how weak I am. I’m quick to spend all my energy looking for solutions when things go wrong. I spend time and energy anaylzing, contemplating, and reworking things until I find something I think will fix the latest problem I’m facing. But I actually fix very little. In fact, a lot of my so-called solutions only make things worse. I need help that comes from outside myself.

Here's the headline I read about a giant ship that’s been stuck in the Suez Canal:

Suez Shows Civilization Is More Vulnerable Than We Think. Choke points imperil global supply chains, and the remedies aren’t simple or cheap. “A gust of wind was all it took to bring global container flows and oil shipments to a halt... But it’s also a reminder that even an advanced civilization like ours has points of acute vulnerability. In the strategy and military realm, such bottlenecks are also known as “choke points.” And we often don’t pay enough attention to them until something goes wrong.”

We’re living through pandemics, volcano eruptions, gun violence, and global complexities like climate change and economics. Our temptation is to live under the illusion that we’ll eventually understand how these complex systems work and then we’ll be able to control them - or at least survive them.

Humans have a long history of taking control into their own hands. Look at all we’ve accomplished in medicine, technology, and politics. We could give ourselves a big pat on the back. Or can we? Where we go wrong is thinking that somehow all the good came about by human power. We can too easily ignore, dismiss, or reinterpret the darkness beneath the surface.

Our greatest “choke point” comes from our rebellion against God. Apart from God, we can do nothing. Now come on, that can’t be true. Sure, we need God. He does a lot for us. But apart from him, we can do nothing? That’s the truth that’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to embrace unless God opens up our eyes. Until there’s reconciliation with God, we operate as if he’s not there and that only leads us into more rebellion. We remove ourselves from the source of wisdom and truth.

Catastrophic events and even simple daily challenges are opportunities to turn back to him and be reminded that humans are weak and are in constant need of his grace. One day, at the end of history, Jesus will deal with sin and evil but until then we live in a broken world alongside other sinful people. Life will only continue to mess up our plans. Ours is a fragile, temporary existence. We are creatures in need of our Creator.

Psalm 103:13-17

The Lord is like a father to his children,

tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

For he knows how weak we are;

he remembers we are only dust.

Our days on earth are like grass;

like wildflowers, we bloom and die.

The wind blows, and we are gone—

as though we had never been here.

But the love of the Lord remains forever

with those who fear him.

His salvation extends to the children’s children

of those who are faithful to his covenant,

of those who obey his commandments!

“A gust of wind is all it took to bring global container flows and oil shipments to a halt...” Consider how much more vulnerable we are as humans. Our days on earth are like grass - here today, gone tomorrow. But we can find great hope in God’s word. God’s knows how weak we are. He knows we are only dust. He knows how devastating our sins are and yet in his love and mercy he provided a way for us to come back to him.

The greatest “choke point” is our rebellion against God but the greatest salvation comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection. On the cross, Jesus took our sins and God’s wrath for those sins upon himself. He died in our place. His blood paid the price that we owe God for our rebellion. It was a sacrificial death. Jesus was then raised from the dead so that anyone who puts their trust in what he did will receive resurrection as well. They will live forever with God in a new Earth that is free from sin and evil and “choke points.”

Psalm 103:10-12

He does not punish us for all our sins;

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

He has removed our sins as far from us

as the east is from the west.

It’s a free gift offered to anyone who will accept it. And it comes with a promise. We can trust God with everything. We can trust him with anything that happens in this temporary life. He walks with us through it all. We can also trust him with our eternity.

Psalm 103:19

The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-27/suez-ever-given-fiasco-shows-civilization-is-more-vulnerable-than-we-think

The Problem We All Face

G.K Chesterton once said when we look at the world we all know "we're the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world."

The world isn't supposed to be like this. We've found ourselves stumbling around the wreckage of a sunken ship. Scrape off the rust and barnacles and the brass shines a bit. Kicking through the silty debris stirs up remnants of a grand old party. Surely, we're not made for pain and suffering. Joy is real so it must come from somewhere.

Human history has seen some improvement and yet all cultures, all nations, suffer the effects of self-inflicted poverty, disease, abuse, addiction, racism, and war. History repeats itself. There's nothing new under the sun. But seriously, what’s wrong with the world? It's a profound philosophical question that everyone considers. Many offer their well-reasoned diagnosis. Some say the problem is corrupt politics or economics. Some say we lack the right education. Some say we haven't evolved enough. Some throw their lives into a particular cause hoping to do their part. Many of us just fall back into ambivalence where we keep calm, carry on and look out for our own interests.

Christianity offers the best explanation of our problem. The Book of Genesis explains the history of how God made the universe. At the end of his creative activity, God gave his stamp of approval to the universe. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” God made everything good! Despite the wreckage, the world still points to the glorious goodness of God. The peace and beauty we long for existed at the beginning.

What went wrong? How did we end up here? The answer is not all that complicated. Don't get lost in the labyrinth of sociological, biological, historical treatises. The problem is me. The problem is you.

God set up the world to function as a kingdom under his good rule. He created humans to represent him in the kingdom, ruling under him with responsibility as they increase, innovate, and cultivate. The story takes a terrible turn. The first humans rejected God. They rejected his goodness. Becoming traitorous rebels, they ignored his commands choosing to live life without him. We all follow their example.

Paul, an early Christian leader, said, "there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away." We were created to worship God and enjoy him. Worship is part of human nature. When we turn from worshipping God we all choose something else to worship. We replace the worship of God with something else. The Bible calls this idolatry. We worship the creation rather than the Creator. It could be anything. Money, power, sex, politics, safety. 

However we do it, we’re all rebels. We prefer self-sufficiency as we follow our own desires. Here's where we see the problem materialize. Rejecting God and his commands remove us from the source of life. We fall short of God's standards. The suffering and injustice are results of our rebellion against God. Without God's intervention, human wisdom falls dreadfully short. No human has the power to change the human heart. We lie because our hearts fear transparency. We lust because we're not satisfied with what we have. We're racist because we believe the lie that our people are better than your people. The Bible even says that the physical world is cursed and broken because of our sin. The world is a mess because we make it a mess. The verdict is we're guilty. We're complicit. We have sinned against a good and holy God. That's the problem. We're guilty. We crashed the ship. We sit dead in the wreckage unable to save ourselves. Human solutions are nothing more than temporary rearrangements of the wrecked pieces. It's a tough truth for modern people to accept but we don't have the ability to fix ourselves let alone the world!

Christianity has the best explanation for the problem. It also has the best solution. We can't save ourselves. We need a rescue that comes from outside humanity. God’s solution is so very good. It's the good news that Christians call the Gospel. Our souls are deathly sick. Sin makes us guilty before a holy God whose commands we've broken and spit upon. But God in his mercy has the solution. He came to earth as the man Jesus who lived a sinless life - the life we should have lived but couldn't. Jesus died sacrificially in our place, taking upon himself God's wrath and the punishment we deserve for our rebellion. God accepted Jesus' sacrifice by raising him from the dead. Jesus says that we too can experience this resurrection.

For the solution to change our lives, we simply trust that Jesus is the solution we need. We accept that his death and resurrection are what we need. We turn from our attitude of selfish rebellion to an attitude of repentance and dependence. We bow before God and humbly admit "Have mercy on me, a sinner."

When that shift happens, God's spirit saves us and changes us from the inside out. We receive the free gifts of eternal life and the righteousness of Jesus as if it were our own. We become people capable of real forgiveness, humility, peace, love, and courage. God begins to conform us to be more like Jesus. Rather than hopelessly contributing to the problem of the world, we now point people to the only solution. And that's really good news.

Gambia Mission Trip

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” -Habakkuk 2:14

Hi friends and family! Will you consider helping me with an important project? I’m leading a team to The Gambia, West Africa for the third time and I need people to partner with me financially. Will you make a donation to our team? The most important thing Christians can do is introduce people to the good news of Jesus Christ that changes everything for the glory of God. We’re working to do that with Servants of Word (SOW), a Biblical training school, to build a residential training center where students from all over Africa will learn to study the Bible correctly, preach it effectively, and develop agricultural skills that will give them self-sufficiency. Pastor Steven M started the school when he moved from Sierra Leone and saw that the Gambia was a strategic location for training West African Christians. The Gambia is a Muslim nation and it’s costly to follow Jesus. There’s very little access to faithful churches or Biblical teaching. Christians need training and discipleship as God brings more people to faith. God is already at work in The Gambia raising up Christian leaders from all over West Africa. We get the privilege of working alongside them.

Each year looks a bit different for our team but we spend time with the Gambian Christians who encourage us more than we encourage them!  We work with local children’s programs and do manual labor at the school campus. The first year we worked with the students to prepare the site. We extracted tree stumps, planted new trees, and cleared the land. The next year we moved mountains of bricks for the first dormitory wing. The school campus is now open with a classroom building and dormitory. God is working and the good news of Jesus is being taught! We are giving thanks to God for the 17 students who graduated in December. They are leading or serving in local churches. Our next trip is on 1-9 February. This year we’ll finally be able to work and sleep at the school campus. We’ll attend class with the students and help with the construction of more facilities. Our support of SOW is strategic for the future of Gambian Christians and it would mean a lot to me to have you support my team financially. Our team of 5 is raising £4000. We’ve already raised £1,683 towards our £3,985 target! Now we’re praying for God to send us more supporters. Will you help us? (And will you consider sharing this with others who might be interested?) Your support will affect Christians in the Gambia for many generations. Please let me know if you’re able to make a donation. It’s encouraging to see how God answers prayer! You can email at dustintramel@gmail.com

There are a few ways to donate. If your credit card allows international transactions you can follow this link https://redeemercroydon.churchsuite.co.uk/donate/
Select Gambia 2020 in the drop-down menu.
If you’re based in the US you can support us tax efficiently. It’s very simple and is made possible by Redeemer City to City, an umbrella organization with 501(c)(3) status. You can use a US credit or debit card and receive a tax receipt. Follow this link https://redeemercitytocity.secure.force.com/donate?c=7011N000000jtK3QAI

(Please let me know if you use this method so I can ensure your funds go to the correct account.)

Below, you can check out what God is doing at Servants of the Word

CLICK HERE to see the location of the training school
https://earth.google.com/web/@13.25569724,-16.58029181,19.89758431a,394.01803024d,35y,50.99633917h,0t,0r

CLICK HERE to see a short video introduction to Servants of the Word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8dNpfpF4Y