Stress Storm
By Tom Gilbreath
We feel the stress building. It seems to be getting worse despite the legion of devices and apps we carry to help us cope with the pressures of modern life. If a time traveler from the 1960s arrived, he might be disappointed by the lack of flying cars, but he would marvel at your smart phone. Imagine having a supercomputer for a personal assistant — and being able to carry that computer in your pocket!
But it turns out that such devices do not simplify life. They just speed things up. We get more done, but with that speed comes ever-increasing levels of tension.
History shows that things have always been stressful. People of all generations dealt with uncertain economic futures, uncertain climate patterns, the looming threat of natural disaster, along with the possibilities of war, famine, and pestilence. Today we have things to help us cope — not only computers, but amazing transportation devices and instant communication with all parts of the world. Kings and queens didn’t have such things a few centuries ago. In many ways, these are the best of times. Still, stress levels remain high.
People often point to an event in US history and say, “That’s when America lost its innocence.” They apply this description to the Great Depression, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, John Kennedy’s assassination, the Viet Nam War, Watergate, 9/11, and others. But America could not have lost its innocence during those events because it had no innocence to lose.
To a young person, it feels like the country lost its innocence during one of these events because, at that moment, the young person lost part of his or her own innocence. When still ensconced in a safe family environment, it’s shocking to learn that the unthinkable can happen.
We should not let nostalgia diminish the difficulties faced by previous generations. But we should understand that the world really is changing. Lowering moral standards and a rising population with access to ever more powerful technologies makes global cataclysms, not just possible, but practically inevitable.
A huge portion of our stress today comes from living in a house with a compromised moral foundation. Its creaks and shudders foreshadow future collapse. That knowledge underlies today’s stress. Previous generations faced difficulties that we do not. But we face things they hadn’t even thought of. In the next few years, weapons of mass destruction will proliferate. Artificial Intelligence will rewrite the rules of human survival. Pestilences like Covid-19 will reappear in stronger forms — engineered for greater destruction. I could go on about stressors unique to our time, but those three are enough.
The comfort in reading history is that we know what happens next. But real life must be lived on the infinitely small razor edge of time that we call “now.” We don’t know what the world will be like when we wake up in the morning, or if we will wake up at all. We make guesses based on the past, but we do not know.
Bible prophecy gives us an outline of the future, including a series of apocalyptic horrors. These days, even unbelievers sense that something evil slinks along behind us in the dark, ready to devour us without notice. The unthinkable is coming, but it will not be the end.
Whether calm or in stress, always be counted among those “who eagerly look forward to His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8, New Living Translation). Till He comes, remember John 16:33. In this verse, Jesus told us the kind of outlook we should adopt, and then He gave us a powerful reason for adopting it. “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
