John 3:16 “For God so loved the world….”
The classic 1963 movie, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, featured more iconic comedians than any film that’s ever been produced. It also contained more adjectives in its title than most productions. It’s those four adjectives (the mads)that keep echoing in my mind….
As I watch the nightly news I can’t help but think the world is not only mad but bad. Plain down bad. How can we see people being beheaded and innocents being slaughtered for the purpose of advancing a political agenda and not be convinced that evil exists? Corruption seems to be the new normal in almost every sphere of life. From women encouraged to “celebrate” the abortive end of their babies to little girls and boys being sold to satisfy the lust of degenerate men—life is becoming a whirlpool of exploitation and sorrow for many.
So the world is not only a bad world, but a sad one. People, especially in western cultures, strive for happiness perhaps more than at any time in history, yet turn up empty. And no amount of drug legalization will fix the pain. It’s a sad world because it’s a world that has forgotten true joy comes in self-sacrifice for another’s good. It’s a sad world because it thinks accommodation of the bad will result in peace. It’s a sad world because the beauty found in truth is being eclipsed by the shadow of ugliness.
And yet…
Whether the world is mad, bad, or sad, it’s a world that God loves. He loved the world so much that he gave what he cherished the most—his only son—to provide a way of escape from the madness, badness and sadness that we created with our free will. So no matter if three thousand mads, bads, and sads describe the world …nothing can cause him to stop loving his creation. And because he loves deeply, he redeems profoundly.
God alone can turn the worst of circumstances into something positive. There is no madness he can’t restore to sanity, no badness he can’t use for good, no sadness he can’t transform into quiet contentment.
I don’t know about you, but the state of the world discourages me…until I am brought back to the eternal truth of a God who loves. A God who spared nothing so we would find hope in the midst of a world gone bad. Take heart….