I keep meeting people who say they find our me-focused culture scary and they want me to help with the anxiety it causes them. They’re often surprised by my response: “The good news is you should feel anxious because our culture sucks hard, but let’s look at some options to help.” I like to call what we have the Dyson Culture – it sucks, but it looks cool with the technology. (Was that a Eureka moment? Get it? Vacuum humor – biting like a Shark.) You know you’re in trouble when arenas have signs reminding parents it’s just a game and they have to go through annual “how to behave” training, yet referees are still regularly kicking parents out of the arenas. I know COVID time led stores like Home Depot to put up signs like, “Please be nice to our staff,” but we’ve been on a down slope for awhile. Maybe we’re just seeing people having a terrible moment like they’re exploding from being pushed too far or maybe people are just ruder (that’s my guess). Either way, you can tell a lot about a culture by the TV shows and movies it makes and right now Hollywood is very Dyson. Whatever happened to family sitcoms? Everything is drama and murder based with more concern for equity and shock than role modeling integrity or morality. Even worse, a friend of mine said his son just watches YouTube and by that he meant his son watches other people playing video games – ouch. When I went to ask my friend what shows they watch as a family, I stopped myself as I realized they don’t make shows like that anymore. As a family, I used to love watching The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Family Matters, and America’s Funniest Home Videos. Currently, I love Modern Family and Brooklyn 99, but even they’re out of date now. Even further, these tamer-for-today’s shows leave me wondering how old I’d want my kids to be before watching them. Disney has a couple more innocent shows like Coop and Cami my daughters really like, but they’re more for young people like Saved by the Bell was (aka kid-like cheese), so not really family based. What’s happened to us? We live anxious lives and then watch shows that cause more anxiety? Where are we supposed to find relief if our entertainment is stressful?
What’s terrifying to me is my pastor pointed out our culture follows what’s written in the Old Testament about the Jews when God compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah (a city He wiped out for being so evil): “In those days… all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Jud 17:6) That kind of sounds like today, doesn’t it? We’ve become like the Jews who became like Sodom and Gomorrah – not a great status to achieve. Good thing we’re not in the Old Testament days.
I removed a couple words to make the above verse easier to read without distraction for my point. The actual verse starts: “In those days Israel had no king…” This statement has a double meaning. It’s before Israel had an actual king, which they get in a following book, 1 Samuel (this is a great book if you love adventure and war), but it’s also foreshadowing Jesus who is supposed to be our King. This too can apply to today: “In those days, Canadians didn’t have Jesus. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Why are people so mean? We don’t have a King. We’re all about ourselves, which means the foundation of our lives is built on sand.
One of the main reasons we are so damaged is we’ve eroded the 10 Commandments, which once helped form the foundation of our country’s morality. Our culture, unfortunately, has twisted the rules to suit what we want for ourselves at the expense of others. Here’s some sarcasm for you:
- Keep the Sabbath… if by Sabbath you mean calling in sick for a mental health day because who has time to rest on a Sunday?
- Don’t use the LORD’s name in vain… unless you can justify it. After all, yelling, “Oh, Buddha!” doesn’t have the same effect.
- Respect your parents… only if you need them or it’s at least convenient. You need to do what’s best for you.
- Don’t be jealous of what others have… unless it can justify your resentment toward them
- Don’t have an affair… unless your partner doesn’t meet your emotional or physical needs or you meet someone who makes you happier. Good sex is more important than having integrity and keeping your vows.
- Don’t steal… unless it can save you money. Why pay to watch like a sucker what you can illegally watch for free?
- Don’t murder… unless it doesn’t directly affect you and the person’s death is collateral damage to getting you the things you want like for the mining of the material needed for a new cell phone and electric car.
- Put God first and don’t have any other gods before Him (the first and second commandment)… never mind, we’ll just erase those and make fun of anyone who actually follows that. We need to put ourselves first because we deserve what we want at the expense of anyone and anything else. I’ll do what I want while calling everyone else a narcissist because it’s different when I’m selfish.
(Were those sarcastic enough?)
Who could’ve predicted that if we promoted selfishness and doing whatever we wanted we’d end up with a broken society? (There’s some more sarcasm) Unfortunately, a broken world is big money (says the therapist). Big money companies and the devil (or maybe they are one and the same) have been brilliant at making us our own god by erasing the true God from our lives and eroding the idea of the healthy nuclear family: (disgruntled reader) “I haven’t made myself my own god… hold on a second, I need to post this picture of me getting a manicure for others to see.” A broken world is a marketing dream because the more broken we are, the more likely we’re to buy crap to distract us from our brokenness. As a culture, we’ve jumped head first into this sea of depravity because it appeals to our selfish side. As theoretical physicist and cosmologist and author of A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss claimed, “I can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, but I’d much rather live in a universe without one.” That’s quite the statement, but I think it’s pretty accurate for most people today: “God just gets in my way of doing all that I want, so let’s just put Him on the shelf until I need Him.”
But isn’t God all about rules and controlling us? No, because God’s rules are not meant to control us, but rather help us be better. As Jesus said, “I have come so that you may have life to the full.” The King has come to set us free from our selfishness. Wouldn’t that be a culture worth living in, a community that didn’t put themselves first but considered others? We would be a community of people who are each carrying our own weight while being willing to give a hand or accept one.
Similarly, what’s the best way to fight depression and anxiety? By recognizing God, the creator of the universe, loves us the way we are. Older Christians are familiar with Psalms 139:14 where it says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” or as the more modern translation puts it: “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” (NLT) Believing in God is meant to help us see our (and others’) positives. In the New Testament it says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Eph 2:10) How can you hate yourself if you focus on how we’re God’s masterpiece? But again, that doesn’t make money.
This week may you consider what it would mean if you accepted that you are God’s masterpiece.
Rev. Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, Learning to love dumb people (like me)