What to do when the world seems to be falling apart
BY DANIELLE STRICKLAND
Mass disappointment in systems, structures and leaders has led to an easy invitation to despair.
These are dark times. Wars are raging, economies are struggling, nationalism is on the rise across the world, many Christian leaders we thought would bring light and hope are tainted, their light extinguished as their complicity with darkness is exposed. We are left wondering what to do, where to go, how to find our faith – if it even matters.
Mark Sayers wrote a small, weighty book a few years ago called A Non-Anxious Presence. He explored era shifts in history and explains that between eras exists a 50-year gap often called ‘the grey zone’. Basically, this 50-year window in time is when all hell breaks loose due to chaos and crisis the shift causes.
Everything that used to work doesn’t anymore, but the new ways are not yet fully here. This leaves people confused, scared and left to try and find their own way, identity, meaning and purpose in the absence of certainty and a seemingly inevitable flurry of panic. It is within this space and time that Christians have a unique opportunity to be a sign of a Kingdom that is deeper than our fears and cultural identities, wider than our divides and inclinations to self-preservation, and more reliable than any system or force past or present. It’s in this world and time that we are called to be a non-anxious presence – secure in the Hope of eternity and the promise of God’s Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
It’s a word.
I think Mark is right. Somehow, it helps to locate our anxiety and uncertainties, it’s good to be honest about our fears and disappointments. AND it’s also right and true and good to be thankful that in this exact space, our prophetic imagination will help us discover the way our lives can be a sign of the sure hope of God’s presence and purposes for this time.
That’s what I’m giving myself to these days: being a grateful, non-anxious presence, displaying the beauty and goodness of God ‘with us’ and ‘in us’ right now, co-creating new ways of working that honour the sacredness of each other, demonstrating the wonder of collaboration over competition and nurturing faith-filled witnesses to the ways of Jesus. In the bleak backdrop of our shifting world, I’ve never been more thankful or hopeful.
This is a miracle.
This is part of an article which first appeared on Danielle's blog, Right Side Up in November 2024. Danielle is a writer, communicator and former Salvation Army officer based in Canada.
