Reading Hollowed Out, by Jeremy Adams, I was getting the very strong impression that everything is going wrong. Everything! But then a strange thing happened to me. I found myself singing the old Car 54 theme song.
There’s a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyn’s broken out in fights,
There’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights.
There’s a scout troop short a child, Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild–
Car 54, where are you?
And the thought came to me: Everything can’t go wrong. It sure looks like it–but what’s that, that the Bible tells us again and again, about how we should walk by faith and not by sight? I mean, is God still up there on His throne, or not? Do we have His promises, or not? Is Christ risen, and our sins forgiven, or not?
The answer is not “Not.”
I don’t understand the details of what God is doing with this fallen world of ours. Maybe He thought we need a wake-up call. Maybe even a trip to the woodshed. But the end of it all, according to God’s own enscriptured word, is salvation. Regeneration. Christ shall reign forever.
This is what we must believe. God is pleased to let us into His labors with Him, to accept us as His servants: there is no higher calling. So buckle down and work, no matter what we see, no matter what we suffer.
Because He has a new heaven and a new earth waiting for us, and eternal life with which to enjoy it.
Amen, God is still in control!
Every now and then I find myself singing that song, too! I loved that program. But it was really a different world then.
Yes!!! This is the message of the Gospel -Victory and we are MORE than conquerors through Christ Who loves us. Let us act like it.
The song by Carroll titled He’s Still God is a nice reminder of truth
“And he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”
Yes, yes, let’s have a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus even if it’s “out of season” — not that praising God is ever out of season!
That’s not such a bad idea…
Reading this and watching the video makes me wish for better days than this post-2020 crazy world with law and policing or lack of actually…
You’re a little young to feel regret for lost times–but our culture deteriorates so fast, who can help it?
True
The rapid changes–none of them for the better–make me feel like I’m a thousand years old. You should see what they’ve done to my home town. One could just sit down and weep.
😭
You’re right about how fast it goes. My friends and I often find ourselves saying, “Three [or some other number between 2 and 10] years ago, who would have thought this possible?”
So true even younger generations are saying the same