Do a quick memory check of all that has happened in the hundred years since the Titanic sank. That ship, heralded as unsinkable, couldn’t even complete one voyage. In 1937 the great German airship Hindenberg went down in flames in New Jersey. In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff and in 2003 shuttle Columbia blew apart during its descent to earth. In 1979 there was a nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the world’s worst nuclear disaster occurred in Chernobyl in 1986. How many product recalls have there been over the years? How many lawsuits because of accidents from defective design in manufacturing? Did you ever own a Corvair? “Unsafe at any speed” was the way Ralph Nader dubbed it. Yes, there’s been amazing progress but the wheels keep falling off. A few days ago Chrysler recalled over 400,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Here’s the point: the last century has taught us that science and technology are not infallible. We’ve become skeptical. And we’ve become skeptical about other things. The inevitable progress of humanity? How about two world wars, the Holocaust and other genocides? The blessings of big central government? Scandals these last days are fueling that skepticism too. The institutional church? Our critics point to sexual scandals, accommodation to culture, fiscal mismanagement, hypocrisies, irrelevance… Here’s what it comes to: We’ve seen too much to be trusting. We’ve had a century of putting our hopes in something or other, only to see our hopes dashed.
Disappointment? Absolutely! But why should we be surprised when science or humanity or someone close disappoints us? They’re mortal, fallible sinners so of course they’ll disappoint us. Disappointment encourages us to go to the One who is above our foibles and failures. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (John 6:63) Every time His disciples were disappointed, Jesus Christ showed in His good time that He can be trusted. Our disappointments can bring into clear focus what it means to trust God, to have, using the religious word, “faith.” That’s what faith is, hanging on to Christ and to the words of His promises, sometimes in spite of what we see and experience. “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
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