I’ve recently read that today’s culture is not interested in Christianity. And that thought saddens me. As I continued to read, the author said that we Christians, we believers in God, and readers of His word must make Christianity attractive to those who are not believers today. And the question is, how do we do that? How do we make faith in God, a life lived walking in the will of God, attractive to people who’ve never wanted that before? To people who’ve never known the need for salvation? How do we awaken that desire in someone who isn’t interested?
This author went on to talk about how our culture has lost beauty, truth and goodness. And he talks about how the art work of today is not beauty. When compared to the classic artists like Michelangelo, da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt and others whose works were inspired by God, contemporary art seems to have no inspiration. And consider today’s music. Can it be described as beautiful and inspiring? Many of the lyrics are vulgar. The sound is pulsing and suggestive. When compared to the classics of Mozart, Chopin and other composers who were inspired to write the great musical masterpieces, beauty has disappeared. There’s a reverence to the classical music pieces. They are timeless. There’s a depth to the classical artwork that isn’t in modern art. Anyone can draw squiggles or splash paint on a canvas.
I find as I’m going about each day I have no interest in listening to the noise of today’s music, which causes anxiousness and annoyance. Instead, I find myself drawn back to the old hymns that we sang in church as a child. As I listen to the instrumental hymns, I could sit and weep. The beauty of the notes and the chords is calming in a world filled with chaos. Recalling the words of those old hymns takes me back to a much simpler time. When life for me was easy. It may not have been easy for my parents, but it was fulfilling for them. And now I’m finding fulfillment in things of my youth. On occasion, I find myself listening to classical music, which I find to be peaceful and inspiring. As I listen to the instruments of the orchestra. Play the different parts. The key and chord combinations strike me as inspired by God. For a composer to be able to create such depth for all the instruments to play in harmony is a God given craft. And we should be thankful that exists in our lifetime. That it has not been removed from our libraries and taken from us. Let’s awaken to the classics. Let’s enjoy them. Let’s be inspired as they move us from deep within. Let’s awaken to beauty in our life.
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Mark 12:30
I find that truth is missing in our lives today. When I think of the criminal and civil trials that we hear of in the news and the lies that have been spread in order to create interest, I cringe. We need truth today more than we’ve ever needed it before because we are being fed lies from so many different media and news sources. We need to know and seek the truth that only comes from reading God’s word and being able to parse out the lies of Satan. We need to get back to Biblical truths. God’s word will stand forever, regardless of what others say about it. Regardless of what others say about God. People can reject him. People can burn Bibles, but God’s word will always stand. The truth cannot be denied. There will come a day when we all stand before God and we will be held accountable for all of our actions and our words and our thoughts. If they do not match God’s Word, there will be eternal consequences. We will be rejected from his presence. Let’s pray for redemption and salvation, not rejection. We need to get back to the truth.
And then there’s goodness that is hard to find in our lives and in our culture. Shouldn’t we have a desire to live for something greater than ourselves? And don’t we know that this deep seated desire is given by God? We want our lives to matter. And we think that comes by doing good and giving back to others. And rightly so.
We are a broken people. We’re looking for wholeness. Wholeness brings a feeling of goodness to our lives. Peace. Self respect. Unity. We all long for it. But we’re only whole when we find God’s healing in our lives.
It’s time to reclaim the goodness of life. It’s time to appreciate the goodness of God’s love and gift of salvation that is freely offered to everyone who has breath. It’s time to reclaim the goodness and beauty of nature at its finest in the fall and winter and spring and summer. There’s goodness in each season of life. We must look for it. We can’t hide the goodness. We need to seek it out. And brush it off. Hang it on our walls. We need to shout the goodness of God.
Let’s be bold. Let’s stand for truth and goodness and beauty. Let’s let God’s love shine out this season in our hearts and in our lives, in our homes, in our families, in our workplace and in our relationships. Let’s stand for God’s truth, beauty and goodness. It cannot be denied.
Beauty, truth and goodness are deep longings of the heart, and they can only be fully explained through the lens of Christianity. In order to define Christianity as good, we must identify it as true and satisfying. And then we must see the world as Jesus sees it.
Deep within the human heart is the longing for the way it is supposed to be.
Paul Gould
Mercy for the Day 