A long drive, some thoughts, etc...

The students here at Rio Grande are gone for Christmas break, so I took a few days off to hang out with some friends in Vermont this weekend. During the trip, I passed many villages and small towns all centered around a town hall, old school building, and large church buildings - the mammoth clapboard buildings with insanely tall steeples. This is the stuff postcards, calendars, and paintings are made of - the quintessential ideal of early American life: God, family, community & education. The problem is that looks are very deceiving. These communities are increasingly lacking the one key element - God. Most of those church buildings are empty. Many only have services in the summer. Others serve as town offices. There are some, however, who have scant crowds and are thoroughly apostate in doctrine. In other words, don't expect to hear the Gospel preached from their pulpits. It's really sad when you think what an impact these congregations had on the formation of this nation. At one time, their message helped our country to emulate the verse from Proverbs - "righteousness exalteth a nation..." Presently, these buildings are nothing more than monuments to a "Truth that has been exchanged for a lie." Their presence serves only aesthetic purposes - sort of like a beautiful model with no personality. You know the type...lights are on but nobody's home!

Now, I realize this isn't the most inspiring post as we tumble head first into Christmas. But there is a point. (At least for me there's a point). It just strikes me as strange that these classic Currier & Ive's towns - inspiration for many a fruitcake tin and Christmas card- have so little in common with what Christmas really is about - faith. To me, it's regional evidence of a national culture that has lost it's way. Vermonters, and folks from New England in general, are incredibly self-reliant; very good people, although somewhat cool and distant. Independence and free thinking seem to rule supreme. (but aren't the latter two the case all over the country?) And for some ever-increasing reason, Biblical faith doesn't have much room in their lives or their churches anymore. I suspect that it just might have something to do with the independence and free thinking business. As humans, we all (in some way) want to be masters of our own universe - at least until we come to faith. We all possess some degree of human desire to be "sovereign" in our own little corners of the world. Ironically, the more in control we declare ourselves to be, the less power we feel like we have. Does this make any sense? It seems that in New England particularly, the desire for individual human sovereignty has been erroneously endorsed by many churches, and has sort of led people away from God to make their own way. In the end, though, surrender of ourselves to the sovereignty of Christ is what gives us the most freedom, independence, and personal power. I reckon that's just how man's wisdom stacks up to God's wisdom.

Some thoughts from a very long 950 mile drive.