James 3:13-18   God’s wisdom vs. worldly wisdom.   One of the sad things many studies and people have been noticing lately is the noticeable decline in mental health, especially amongst the younger generations.  This was going on before Covid but the Covid lockdowns really accelerated this.   People are more anxious and depressed than ever before.  What’s going on?   

   One of the concepts being taught to kids today is the idea of ‘fragility.’   It’s the idea that what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker. We used to say ‘stronger’ but now they say ‘weaker.’ Therefore, all pain, discomfort, emotional tensions, must all be avoided; that it is harmful so you need to embrace safety. 

   What it leads to is an expectation of safety and comfort, so if you’re experiencing pain, anxiety, discomfort of any kind; you must be doing something wrong or somebody is doing something wrong to you and it needs to stop.

   But this expectation that life should be always safe and comfortable is also a recipe for anxiety and despair.  Why?  Because life always has a way of finding us and we discover that real life is full of risks, full of things that can cause anxiety, full of people who don’t care about your feelings at all and actually will hurt us if they can.

   So, the most common reactions to this are: anxiety, as we try to keep all this discomfort away and also despair, even depression, when we discover that we cannot keep these things away, we can’t control them.

    Plus our news media and culture makes all this worse. For awhile the media was saying Christians were just harmless but wrong.  Now what we are hearing more openly and in a more hostile tone is that Christianity is wicked, immoral and dangerous!  I think you can see the devilish wisdom at work.

      Reality, especially after Covid, is hitting kids hard.   They are asking: is it supposed to be like this?  Is it supposed to hurt like this?  What am I doing wrong?  And again the two most common options are anxiety and despair.

     But Christianity gives a third option!  It gives us a better story, a more accurate and realistic one, and with that story it gives hope.   Jn. 16:33   Everybody needs to hear this reality, about a world that hurts us, it is hard, it is not always fair, it is not always comfortable and safe.     You may not be doing things wrong; you’re just living life in this world.  Jesus said in this world you will have trouble.

              Don’t needlessly go looking for it, but also don’t be surprised by it.

   Christianity offers a realism about life and people without which you will continually be disappointed.  But it gives hope.  There is more to this world than you know.  There is more to life than what you can see with your eyes.  Your desire for safety and comfort is not wrong, it’s just not yet!   

      We all long for a place where there will be no more tears, no more pain, a safe place but that place is not here.      Jesus said it’s coming!

  By placing your trust in Jesus and what He did for you on the cross, He will secure for you a place in that place of comfort, a place of no more pain.    We’ve had enough of the world’s wisdom.    It doesn’t work.     It doesn’t give us a true picture of reality.   In these highly partisan days, of much knowledge but very little wisdom, let us seek the gentle wisdom that comes from God.