W is for WORLD

Before the M1 motorway was constructed, it used to take over an hour to travel to Belfast from home. Now, with all the roadworks, it takes longer. Mum and dad used to take ages to pack away the groceries. Now it only takes a few minutes. I used to never be able to find anything to watch on the four TV channels. Now I can't find anything to watch on the hundred or so channels. Before mobile phones I used to never be able to contact anyone when I needed to. Now I can't get away from anyone. We used to have neighbours and friends round for an evening's chat. Now we write to them on the computer. Mum used to take all morning to prepare dinner. Now the microwave takes ten minutes. We used to eat and drink everything that our mothers made. Now we come out in rashes. We used to run after a football all evening. Now we won't even run after a bus. We used to teach children what was right. Now they only want to know their rights. Hardly progress, is it? And the world was supposed to be a better place because of all the advances we have made. In school we have become obsessed with computers, which I love, with the development of skills and competences, with test results and achievements and the acclaim that the school receives on account of its success, but where are the faces of the children or have they just become a statistic that someone will manipulate to underpin their particular ideology. What price progress?
The loss of childhood innocence, the breakup of family life, the lack of time to build meaningful relationships, the abundance of new illnesses and diseases, the lure of wealth, the proliferation of crime, the cheapness of life, the promotion of self, the dearth of respect, the self-made man.

He came from another world, sent by his father as a baby with the extraordinary power to defeat the greatest evil that existed, yet he lived most of his time as an ordinary person. As he grew, he became more aware of what he could do, see and hear and of the knowledge he had been given and when his time came he was ready to save so many. His earthly mother knew he was something special but she knew that he couldn't stay for ever, yet he always promised that he would return some day. So when he came back and Lois Lane told him that 'The world was a better place without Superman for the world doesn't need a Saviour,' he replied, 'Every day, I hear people calling out to be saved.'

And don't those words of hers just encapsulate where we as a world have arrived in our thinking about God. A world where we live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself. Thankfully, every day, God still hears people calling out to be saved and by His grace they find the world to be a better place when He answers their cries. And as Paul writes in Acts, 'He has set a day when he will judge the world.' Like Peter, we who believe are looking forward to a new world, a new heaven and a new earth.

You know, Lois Lane was wrong. The world may not want a Saviour but they do need Him.