Maybe I'm the only one (but I doubt it) that feels slightly overwhelmed by recent current events: Ferguson, Missouri rioting; ISIS/ISIL/Hamas, Iran; the focus on persecution of Christ-followers in Iraq; a sluggish, if not poor, economy; world leader's inaction to address threats against peaceable and free people by those who would destroy them.
To one who sees only with their eyes could fall into distress quite easily, but to those with a Christian worldview, current events can be put into perspective because a) similar events have happened before, and b) these events can be predicted to happen again based on what we read in the Bible.
Most concerning to me is the apparent lack of action (maybe I'm just not able to see any action with my physical eyes). These are times when men and women of faith must act, and Dietrich Bonhoffer gives us a glimpse of the necessity of action in his essays and letters.
"The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil."
Elsewhere, Bonhoffer asks and states,
"Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God."
