We all know things are different. We can feel it all around us.

In my opinion not even the 60s were like this. While there were riots and police officers were often called “pigs,” I don’t remember anything like what we are feeling and seeing today.

I spent the weekend with two of my grandsons. We had a wonderful time, but then we received the word from Baton Rouge.

While we tried not to make this a child or teenager’s problem, I couldn’t help but wonder what children and teenagers feel in what feels very much like a broken world.

But, this is the truth: the world is no more broken today or this year than it has been in the past. We live in a broken world where broken people act out the despair and anger of their hearts. The East Baton Rouge Sheriff spoke so profoundly: the problem is in the heart.

The need today in America is the same need at the founding of our country–we need Jesus Christ and His life-changing power in our lives.

We should not be surprised when lost people act out their lostness.

Paul described what the gentiles of the ancient world experienced before they came to Christ. Paul reminded them they were without God and without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12). People without hope kill other people. People without God  live lives of desperation, assuming that nothing will ever change.

Paul reminded us what the world under the dominion of Satan is like: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Jesus told us the true nature of Satan–he is a murderer (John 8:44). We should not be surprised when those who follow Satan act like him.

But, there is tremendous hope. The same God who gave His Son for us changes lives. He is our hope–our only real hope. Paul testified that “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:3-4).

Please don’t give up. Don’t live in despair. Live in hope. Live in Christ and share what He can do in the lives of those without hope.

Before all this began, we knew where our hope comes from.

We still know.

Let us live for Christ, and let us take every opportunity to share the reason for the hope we experience.

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