Millennium’s end

Dear Editor, During these past few months my heart has been very burdened to reclaim America for Christ. With each additional school shooting, every murder of an unborn baby, my heart is convicted that this nation is in very serious trouble. How much longer will the Lord withhold His wrath? 

I feel that it is my responsibility as a Christian to do something, but I am not quite sure what I should do. I am writing you in hopes you can help direct me to a career that would be effective in bringing America back to Christ.

—Kristin Morgan, Homeschooler 

Dear Kristin, 

It certainly makes sense to be sad about what’s happening in America. It’s good to see our great need for Christ’s speedy return and the judgment that will come. 

Some people even say that there’s no use thinking about training for careers as doctors, lawyers, or journalists—that all of us should spend every minute of every day directly proclaiming the gospel to all with whom we come in contact. 

It’s no use, they say, planning long-term, because the Lord through storms, plagues, Y2K bugs, or whatever, will soon destroy this culture. America deserves God’s wrath and curse, and the end is near. 

Kristin, we do deserve God’s wrath and curse. Ever since Adam’s fall, we all have. And yet, the Lord is merciful to us, and He’s been merciful to our culture despite abundant sin. Maybe the bowl of His wrath is filling up, but it seems that He has an enormous bowl, and we don’t know how close or how far from pouring it may be. 

So you’re right to prepare for decades to come, not merely days. As Christians we are in exile from our real home, and we should take to heart the verses in chapter 29 of Jeremiah that contain the great prophet’s letter to the Jewish exiles in Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. ...”

Kristin, you’re right to note that it is your responsibility as a Christian to do something—but it is not your responsibility to do everything. If you build a house, plant a garden, marry and have children, and raise them, ... that is good. If you seek a career that will be effective in bringing America back to Christ, you may be sorely disappointed, because perhaps America will not come back to Christ. Marriage and family are important—and you may also choose among many careers that can glorify God, and in the process perhaps help to bring some Americans to Christ. 

Ask what gifts has God given you—because He does not waste talents. If you’re good in math, think about being an engineer. If you like science and can stand the sight of blood, think about being a doctor. If you’re a good writer, by all means think of being a journalist, because we desperately need people who can apply biblical wisdom to the events around us. 

Kristin, I don’t want to direct you to a career based on what I like, and I don’t want you to direct yourself to a career just based on what you like. Instead, you—with parents and pastors and friends—should inventory your talents and discern the career that God is directing you to. Take your likes and dislikes into account also, because our chief purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (and forever begins right now). But look particularly at what you’re good at, because over the long run you’ll like the godly pleasure that true achievement brings. 

In the next few years, don’t think it’s up to you to save America: It’s up to God. The words of God that Jeremiah relayed to ancient Israel are relevant to us: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 

Above all, Kristin, pray for the victims of sin in America, but do not worry. Psalm 131 has a wonderful message for not only theological study but everyday living: “I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” 

As we approach Thanksgiving, even with all the things that are bad in America, we have so much to thank God for. Psalm 131 teaches us how to be thankful every day, and its last line tells us what to do today and tomorrow: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore”