Cynicism

Funny how you say something and then a little while later you read something about the exact same thing that you were just thinking about. So in my last blog I shared about how I felt pretty cynical after the 7th Day Slumber concert. I was just reading The Vision and the Vow by Pete Grieg (great book by the way) in it he says,
"We are predisposed to cynicism because we don't have an all-consuming, cause the way previous generations did. Instead we have trends. We have products and technologies. We have our immediate circle of friends. But we don't have something bigger than our own little selves. We were never called up to fight for freedom. No ration books. No Cuban Missile Crisis. No man on the moon. No Martin Luther King, Jr. Just disposable heroes sponsoring products. Stuff. Things that come and go."
Is he right?? I think so. Now we do have causes, Tsunami relief, Aids, Hurricane Katrina relief. But (again here I am the cynic) most of the people who jumped on the Tsunami relief forgot about it and moved on to the next tragedy. With the exception of a few people most of our “heroes” jump from relief benefit to relief benefit without sticking to one Cause. I respect Bono and Ricky Martin (I know I shudder as well) but they have stayed the course with the work they have chosen. Bono, with Debt reduction and Ricky Martin, building houses for Tsunami survivors. But what do we need to truly stand for a cause?? Do we need a common enemy (Like Hitler in WWII) but are we blind?? We as Christians already have an enemy a million times worse than Hitler could ever hope to be. We fight not, “…against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).” I think that we need more than a common enemy. Do we need a vision? Yes! What is that vision. It is as Grieg says, “The vision is Jesus - obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus. The vision is an Army of young people. You see bones? I see an Army.” What do we need to do to free us from cynicism? I think more than an enemy we need our vision to be Jesus and our focus to be on Him and what He wants for our lives. And then we can unite as an army against our REAL enemy.