If you ask anyone who works in public policy or the the non-profit world, social workers, teachers, police officers, etc. they will all tell you the same thing, that society is falling apart.
Most of the things they’re turning to to escape are unhealthy. They include alcohol and narcotics but they also include junk food, cheap entertainment, and above all else their internet connected devices. I saw a statistic recently that said the average person living in the US State of California spends 7 hours a day online for non-work-related activities. That means people are scrolling social media, watching videos, playing video games and chatting with their favorite AI avatar almost every moment that they’re not working (and probably quite a bit also while they’re working) or sleeping.
On that subject, many studies are showing that human beings aren’t getting enough sleep these days, and this, on top of everything else, is also causing all kinds of neurological, emotional, psychological and physical health issues for pretty much everyone.
The thread that connects all of these issues is loneliness. People are disconnected from each other and they’re also disconnected from God. The phone and all the other internet-enabled technology and devices offer a cheap, relatively easy way to try and feel connected to SOMETHING or SOMEONE but it’s a very poor substitute for real connections with real, flesh and blood people, to say nothing of the God who created us.
This is the real reason society is crashing down around our ears. It is the reason people are lashing out in violence, or lashing in by harming themselves (suicide rates are at terrifyingly high rates in almost every Western country across all demographics) and it is the reason for the horrifying rise in substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and all the other thigns that are causing so much misery and despair everywhere you look.
So the question, as always, is what is to be done?
Mother Theresa of Calcutta is credited with having once said, while speaking to a group of people that she was talking to that “if you want to save the world, go home and love your families.”
Back in the late 1980s, there was a surge of interest in environmental issues. A popular saying that came out of that surge was “think globally, act locally,” and that’s almost the same thing as what Mother Theresa was saying.
Another similar slogan that I’ve heard many times is “make a dent where you’re sent.”
All of these slogans contain some very good advice, but I think the time has come to expand on them a little bit.
Because, as I said in a previous blog, the world is in very bad shape and there are some REALLY big problems almost everyone feels are completely beyond their ability to do anything about. The really big problems are too big for most ordinary people like you and me.
But I’ve got some good news.
You and I don’t have to solve the big problems, even if we theoretically could. We just have to look around the place where we live and find some small problems that we can help solve.
If enough people solve enough small problems in the immediate vicinity of where they live, then maybe the needle will start to move on some of the big problems.
There’s probably someone living in your apartment building, or in one of the other houses in your subdivision, who is lonely, and you can be a friend to that person.
You don't even need to go looking for these people. If you show up and let them know you care just a little bit, they'll find you.
If you’re blessed to live in an area where there’s some kind of community center or school, go to that facility and ask whoever runs it if there’s some work you can volunteer to do. In the course of doing this volunteer work, you will almost certainly come into contact with people who need a friend. It’s as easy as falling off a log.
Even if there’s no community center or school, or even any organized community activities, you don’t have to move very far from the place where you lay your head down to sleep every night to find people who are lonely, sad, tired, fed up, freaked out, beaten down, etc.
If you just set up a card table and couple of chairs on the sidewalk somewhere and put a little plate of cookies or whatever on the table and a sign which says “sit and have a cookie with me and tell me what’s on your mind” you’ll have plenty of people take you up on the offer.
The point is to not be one of those people who spend their entire evening after coming home from work or school scrolling on the phone. Instead, be one of those people who comes home from work (and, while you’re at work, try to be a friend to your co-workers as much as you can, because that’s a good way to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem as well) has dinner with your family, spends time with them and then, maybe together with them, goes out into your community and makes some kind of positive contribution to what’s going on there.
A really easy and obvious place to go is a local church congregation. It’s not just the place to go once a week to sing some worship songs, listen to a message, eat some coffee cake and then go home. Most churches have all kinds of activities going on during the week, and it’s a great place to invest your time, money, effort and energy.
That’s because there are people there who need you too, and the first person who needs you there is the pastor of the congregation. He’s trying to do what God called him to do in that congregation, in that neighborhood, in that community, and he needs help. He needs your help and he needs my help.
If you’re not attending a local congregation yet, find one and give everything you possibly can to what God is doing in and through that congregation. Give your tithes and offerings to that congregation. Give your time to that congregation. Be one of the people who goes to the prayer meeting at that congregation. Be one of the people who teaches the childrens classes at that congregation. Go to the Men’s group meetings at that congregation. If you’re a women, go to the Women’s group meetings. If there aren’t Bible studies and other kinds of meetings there for men, women, students, or whatever group you think you belong to, go to the pastor and tell him you want to start having such meetings.
Another old saying that comes to mind in this context is “pray as if it all depends on God, but work as if it all depends on you.”
Brothers and sisters, please hear me.
None of us can do everything, and most of us can’t solve the big problems.
But every one of us can do something, and we can all help with the small problems.
If enough ordinary, everyday people do enough ordinary positive things every day, the big problems will begin to get more manageable.
The people who are relatively high-functioning need to become producers of positive things, not just the consumers of positive things. Help the lower-functioning people get their act together so that they can become more high-functioning and eventually they’ll also start becoming producers and not just consumers.
We save the world one small step at a time. A billion small steps in the right direction will add up, and so will a billion small steps in the wrong direction. Be one of the people who takes steps in the right direction, not one of the people who takes steps in the wrong direction. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
So, to conclude, if you want to save the world, make a dent where you're sent, think big but act small and go home and love your neighbors as yourself.