Revolt: The Story of God's Pursuit of Imperfect PeopleSample

Our family recently experienced a major heartbreak. My wife and I have four children, two biologically born and two through adoption. We also had a fifth child that we “adopted,” though not legally speaking. Tanya was nineteen when she entered our family. For eight years she was almost always with us. She went with us on family vacations, attended church with us, and joined us for family meals. She even lived in our basement for a time.

One night, while recovering from a medical procedure, Tanya unexpectedly passed away at twenty-seven years old. To this day, there are no clear answers for how she died. The best guess is a blood clot. Needless to say, we were (and still are) in shock. We are grieving. We are sad and are reminded that this world is broken. This world is not how it should be.

A simple look around today’s world quickly reveals that something is very wrong. A global pandemic. Famine in third-world countries. War raging across the globe. A tragic car crash that kills young people going to college. Cancer for a mom of four children. Poverty. Racism. On and on the list could go. All of us could make a list of injustices that are evident in our lives.

Regardless of what you believe is the source of life’s problems—whether it be political, financial, or sociological—one thing is certain: something is badly broken. Although our social media feeds are filled with incessant chatter about solutions to society’s problems, the world around us doesn’t seem to be getting any better. In fact, most days, it feels like things are actually getting worse.

The Bible doesn’t hide the fact that life is full of pain and suffering. God didn’t give us simplistic answers to the complexity of our reality. In fact, the Bible is brutally honest about the depth of the brokenness in our world and provides an answer as to why society became such a mess in the first place. These answers all point forward to the great hope found in Jesus Christ.

Respond

What would you say is your biggest frustration about our world today?

Do you have a hard time reconciling the brokenness of the world? Why or why not?