Going Nowhere, Already Arrived

Got a text message from a guy a couple days ago which ended with, “I feel lost in my life.” How’s that for a commentary on Christ-less existence? The truth is, even in the middle of the most intense period of learning of their lives, students still find themselves without an all-inclusive perspective that makes sense of their lives. The problem with incessant Marxist harping on atheism and the foolishness of faith is that it leaves a generation of students without a master-plan for existence. What’s left is the kind of stuff that Ecclesiastes is made of: I’m learning, I’m gaining, I’m enjoying, I’m living… so what?

If we ever had means of doing so, I’d love to interview a hundred college students about their views on life, purpose, and existence. Not that any of the answers would really be honest, but I still wonder what would such an interview come up with? What would students in China say they’re all about? I’m pretty sure it would be a mix of, ‘providing for my family,’ ‘pursuing personal success,’ and ‘making myself a productive member of society.’ Not that any of them are passionately committed to any of those things, nor do any of those phrases really help them to make any sense of their own life or the world around them.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, this is the really diabolical part of how Satan has worked in China. Rather than the old false religion card he plays so well, he has instead taught the most recent generations to completely ignore the categories of truth and faith. He deceived some very important people into thinking that they were too intelligent, too modern, and too scientific to be duped into faith – and so sent the country down the path of one of the most dangerous faiths that exists – faith in self. That’s commonly said here: ‘do you have any faith?’ ‘I believe in myself.’

The problem with being your own god, though, is that you’re no good at it. And eventually, in some moment of clarity (usually terror, despair, wrath, or something like that), you realize that the little phrase you made up about what our life purpose was is seen to be just a farce – we’re powerless gods. What do you do when that happens? Ideally, you hear the Gospel. Alternatively, you redouble your efforts – you’re just not serving yourself hard enough. Pray for this guy, and a few hundred million guys just like him.