London is a city on the verge of crumbling. Housing prices continue to soar beyond the reach of the common wage earner. Bus transportation survives because the old double-decker buses refuse to die. Underground transport regularly fails to run and violates every known health regulation. Businesses face the evolving change brought by stealth taxes including a congestion charges for those thinking they might drive into the city. If this isn’t enough, the rail and road systems into the city have major challenges that will take decades to fix due to a chronic lack of capital investment! I haven’t even begun to talk about the school challenges, national health system, or the budget gap. Is the future written or is this the norm?
When one looks at paths to happiness and success it would be logical to conclude that self-sufficiency, empowerment, and realization are the keys to happiness, peace, and prosperity. The life examples of self-made millionaires in any field testify to this end. Business, politics, and entertainment each have their representatives and walking billboards. But is there any truth in their advertising?
There are a myriad spiritual and development disciplines presented for our consideration. The hard reality is that there are two simple foundations – self and a God outside. Within the gods there is a God of mercy, compassion, and love who faces charges from gods of all types that allege that their freedom has been taken away. “We know better” is the cry of the ages!
I wonder if the cry for freedom and the need to do it on our own are merely cycles of the future that reflect the crumbling and ruin that is to come. John saw the outcome as the Angel warned and testified to the future. “Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined! A ghost town for demons is all that’s left!” (Revelation 18.2)
Babylon’s future doesn’t need to be ours. Yesterday’s mistakes do not need to condemn today. The all powerful God has given us a choice to invest in the future. Our future is just that, ours.
