Bjcorbin's Blog

It is recorded in the book of Genesis that immediately after God created man, He told him to be “fruitful”, to “multiply”, to “subdue” and to “take dominion” over the earth.  With this being the first command of God to mankind, it would seem obvious that the ability and desire to do these things would be an integral part of our human nature.  Indeed, they are so foundational that they often occur at an unconscious and almost instinctual level.  We do not have to teach our children to compete with their siblings or that the strong shall dominate the weak; these things seemingly come encoded within them.  The history of mankind would certainly bear witness to these tendencies, as empires have risen and fallen throughout the ages.  Though the pacifist might wish to extol the virtue of “civility” in mankind, it seems that our inherent desire to “subdue” and “take dominion” is far more prevalent.  Though we as humans have the ability to choose a different path, I would submit that these inclinations remain at the core of who we are.

At points throughout our history, men have tried to live in denial of these tendencies, but that has never turned out well.  An example of this would be communism or socialism.  Though many an idealist has envisioned a utopian society, where everyone shares equally in the fruit of a given kingdom, the temptation to seize control of the fruit distribution system has always proven to be too hard to resist.   Regimes that have risen under the pretense of “taking care of the people” have always made slaves of them in the end.  As I watch my own country flirt with a post-modern socialist agenda, I shudder at the thought of where we might find ourselves in the very near future.

In Western society, we place a tremendous value on convenience and as technology advances, we keep finding new ways to make things easier for ourselves.  Our food is microwavable, so that we don’t have to toil in a hot kitchen; our entertainment systems come with remote controls, so we don’t have to get out of our recliner; our cars start remotely, so we don’t have to walk outside on cold mornings; and now our electronic devices are being equipped with voice activation, so we don’t even have to expend the energy it takes to push a button.  At the average fast food restaurant, there is often a line of cars at the drive-thru, with little or no waiting at the counter.  The unfortunate by-product of this phenomenon is that our tolerance for anything that requires much effort has greatly diminished.  Things that used to be commonplace (e.g. warming up leftovers on the stove, hanging clothes on the clothesline, getting a roll of film developed, wringing out a mop head, pushing a mower, reading a book, waiting in line…) now seem almost oppressive to us; and for our kids, who never knew anything different, it seems unthinkable that people ever lived that way.  They are growing up in world filled with virtual realities, where there is no gravity to hold them down, no friction to slow them down and where they ultimately control the action.  Though it’s easy to understand why they might prefer that reality to the steady resistance that real life seems to bring, I can’t help but wonder how equipped they’ll be when it’s their turn to raise up and prepare the next generation. For them, the concept of “work” and more specifically “hard work” has become largely passé.

Presumably, all these conveniences should be affording us more time for the things that really matter in life, but somehow it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.  Instead, we’ve become a society that seems very distracted from the real issues of life and prone to spending our time staring at digital screens, both large and small.  Whether it is Facebook, Farmville (i.e. internet games) or Fantasy Football, on our iPads, iPods or iPhones, we spend a huge amount of time in cyberspace, with very little real fruit to show for it.  Technology is largely transforming us into a society of spectators, who keep trying to find ways to make our screens seem more lifelike (e.g. 60”, High Definition, 3D…).  We try to console ourselves with the idea that these activities are interactive, but the fact remains, we’re not really in the game.  Many of the applications available today are little more than silly time wasters (e.g. Angry Birds), meant to help us escape from the stress of everyday life.  While there may be some value in a small amount of that, it quickly becomes a problem when we spend more time and energy in the virtual world than we do in the real one; and as we develop our tendency to retreat from issues that we ought to be confronting.  Two hundred friends on Facebook doesn’t translate into real friendship until someone is willing come and invest something in the person that you really are; followers on Twitter are no consolation for someone who is lonely and battling depression.  We have more “real time” communication than ever before, but somehow we’re becoming even more disconnected from each other.  We’re now a society where even the once sacred institution of marriage is largely viewed as either disposable or non-essential; and where the blueprint for the “nuclear family” has been run through the shredder.

Sadly, the church is no exception to these trends, as our cathedrals have largely given way to arenas, where the preacher stars as the main attraction and the congregation plays the part of the live studio audience.  They come to see multi-media presentations, with singing, dancing and hopefully an inspiring message.  Often times it is little more than compelling musical theatre; because, to be quite honest, that’s what keeps the audience coming back.  And if they don’t really feel like fighting the crowds, they can always watch on their TV or their computers or on their smart phones…  Meanwhile the “Body of Christ” continues to be fractured and disconnected; both from one another and from the fallen world around it.

Ultimately, God did not design man to be sedentary, solitary or a spectator.  We were created to be fruitful and to multiply; neither of which can happen without genuine and personal interaction (both with each other and with God Himself).  Such interactions are often complicated and challenging, but they are absolutely essential for the development of our whole being.  He also put it within us to subdue and to take dominion over the realms within which He’s called us; but it’s up to us to engage in that process.  When we fail to engage, whether consciously or simply through distraction, we begin to lose our sense of purpose and identity.  In such times, we are easily led astray and often wind up damaging ourselves and others.  I believe that this is at the root of so much of the dysfunction that we see in our families, in our churches, in our communities and in our government.  We’ve largely lost track of who we were created to be and of why we were sent here in the first place.  Our love of comfort and leisure keep us looking for a cozy oasis instead finding the role that we are meant to fulfill; and it causes us to follow after men who will tell us that our self-centered extravagance is somehow justified and maybe even God ordained.  But even if we manage to score ourselves a cushy seat in a luxury box, we are still only spectators, while God ultimately created us to be in the game.  The Bible tells us that a faith that does not act is worthless and that the “only thing that counts” is when that faith expresses itself as love.  Based on those truths, it would seem foolish to hope to participate in the glory of heaven, if we have chosen to play the role of spectator, while here on the earth.