Prophesy of The Grey Town

I have seen that grey town on the way to hell that C.S. Lewis wrote of years ago. His description so accurately mirrors the current social communication landscape that it appears prophetic—a correlation he never could have known about when he was here.

Knowledge is power, and what would we expect to happen if limitless knowledge was at our fingertips? Communication has never been more prioritized in history. Never have we had tools for communication as advanced and powerful as we do now. We can shoot a quick text, rant on facebook, goof around on youtube, spout off on twitter, take care of business on email, set the record straight on blogs and catch up on video chat. There are tools for making public and tools for keeping “private,” tools to amplify, simplify, beautify, and clarify. We have the power to present ourselves any way we want, and we feel justified to spew fire on our neighbor in the name of honesty, but we approve of being offended by the lightest slight. We can effectively create our own reality. We isolate ourselves in the middle of the crowd. We build walls and distance ourselves from others for smaller and smaller reasons.

And what would we expect to see from a world like ours? a fallen world, a hurting world, a Godless world? Nobody trusts anyone. Why should they? There are so many examples of people who held positions of influence and power who have let us down. Do I need to list names of pastors who have been found guilty of sexual abuse and misconduct, misuse of power, misuse of money? What about senators, judges, police officers, presidents, doctors, hospitals, big organizations, big businesses, big churches, fathers, mothers, and your neighbor?

Large rocks fall down a mountain. See the landslide they cause, the destruction they leave behind. They do not stop until they have fallen to the lowest places. Then how can we trust in one who never ends? But hasn’t he himself warned us that the fate of all who trust in men is to be cursed? Yet our world is coming to ruin without trust; without hope the end is already here.

There is one way forward, and it is Jesus. To know him is to know both love and power. Jesus has called us to love, and love hopes. Love moves forward.  We move forward in love for our neighbor, not because our neighbor is trustworthy but because Jesus has called us to move forward in relationships. Even if the relationship fails Christ’s purpose won’t. What man has offered his body in payment for fools? What man has offered up his body to be split open, spit on, and cursed to save his enemy? When we move forward displaying trust in each other we place our hope and trust in the one who can save us, in one who has withheld nothing, who gave up everything, who is worthy of our trust.

—reh

1Cor 13:7

Love...It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Jeremiah 17:5

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

Psalm 118:8-9

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

Isaiah 2:22

Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Genesis 6:5

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

1Cor 12:21

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

1Cor 6:7

To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? [cheated]

John 14:1“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a]for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 10:9-11 (9)because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”