Walking together with God is way more powerful than ‘Lone-Ranger’ individualism. Many Christians have been infected with the most virulent virus of modern American life: radical individualism. They concentrate on personal obedience to Christ as if all that matters is “Jesus and me,” but in doing so, miss the point. Christianity is not a solitary belief system. Any genuine resurgence of Christianity, as history demonstrates, depends on a reawakening and renewal of that which is the essence of the faith—the people of God, the new society, the body of Christ, which is made manifest in the world—the church. So, says Chuck Colson.1
Another person said this about individualism, and I like this really well. He said, ‘Americans are so shaped and stamped by their legacy of individualism that the concepts of community virtue and moral obligation have been discredited in our popular culture, adulthood is too often defined as doing what you want to do, not what you are supposed to do. Making a baby is a sign of status while caring for one is not. Right and wrong are old-fashioned, politically incorrect concepts. And sin? Forget it. The problem doesn’t end with kids getting pregnant and going on welfare.
Half of all Americans who marry and have children eventually divorce. For many, marriage is more like a hobby than a commitment, a phase instead of a trust. We are becoming a country of deadbeat dads who don’t pay their bills and dead-tired moms who work two jobs to pick up the slack. Even many parents who pay for their children don’t pay attention to their children. In so doing, they miss out on some of life’s greatest joys: hearing a small giggle or holding a small hand. As Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders notes, it is easier for many children to find drugs “than it is for them to find hugs.”
The best thing that society can do for its toddlers is to make “parent” an honorable title again. No job is more important, yet no job is more often taken for granted. We teach work skills but not life skills, change a carburetor but not a diaper, and treat a customer but not a kid. Becoming a parent should be the result of love, not just sex, a sign of a lasting relationship, not just a passing infatuation, a source of pride, and not remorse. Only then will our children be safe.’2
That is well said, don’t you agree? Why Walking with God is Way More Powerful Than Individualism — that’s our focus on this week’s Light On Life.
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