The world is broken. Ravaged by sin, torn apart in conflict, fractured it seems in every which way, and for the first time ever, technology globalizes each fissure and sends it straight to our phones.
More than any generation before us, we’re inundated with knowledge, and so much of it demoralizes the heart and devastates the soul. We know more than we should know.
Anxiety is at an all-time high, and hope is at an all-time low. Like an economic bear market, the situation seems dire and investors’ confidence is low. We’re pulling out all our cash and stuffing it under the mattress — this is no time for planting churches and we would be crazy to be public and passionate about our faith.
We can barely keep our friends in church (or in the faith) it seems.
The prophet Habbakuk (1:2) felt the same way in his time:
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?”
For Habakkuk the world is a desert. The knowledge of God’s glory dried up.
The Atacama Desert is in Chile. It’s the driest place on earth, receiving just one millimeter of rain each year. It’s so dry, NASA runs Mars test missions there. But just below the desert floor is a flood of possibility. 200 varieties of flowers lie beneath the surface, and every five years or so, enough rain falls to create what’s called a superbloom. In an eruption of color, the desert comes to life, full of glory.
The seeds are there, it just takes a little rain.
Revival & Rain
Do you know how God answered Habbakuk’s lament? “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4).
We see a desert.
God sees a superbloom ready to happen.
We see the church in decline, the Twitter wars, culture in constant conflict.
God sees the readiness of revival.
This is an opportunity.
A Christian living by faith with a vision of God’s glory should never be bored. We have too many bored Christians! Whatever you’re good at, do it well for the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God.
The time is now.
The seeds lie waiting to bloom, the rain is coming, come join the harvest.
This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Send, with the Good Book Company.