It seems that for many of us born in the later half of the twentieth century, including the millennials and just about everyone moving forward, technology has become the hope of our generations. We thought, and perhaps some may still think, that science, information and technology will at some point, bring about some grand nirvana and age of prosperity that will solve all of the world’s problems.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the more I realize that war still rages all around us, people we don’t even know want to kill us, and both statistically and relationally we are not any happier as human beings.   It unfortunately appears that, the more prosperous and comfortable we become in our day to day living, the more miserable we are.

Why?

Perhaps we can gain a little insight by paying a little closer attention to the Hollywood and Bollywood icons we so irrationally idolize.  I think one of the reasons why famous actors & actresses in particular are frequently overcome by drug abuse and depression is that they can’t even live in the same fantasy worlds we live in because they know the make believe lives they so convincingly portray on the big screen is not real.

When Carrie Fisher walked off the set from Star Wars, she knew that it was all just cardboard and foam, green screen and CGI.

There was no escaping to a galaxy far far away for her, or for any of the other cast for that matter, and when the shooting was done, she was no longer Princess Leia, just Carrie Fisher, with the same problems as everyone else. Perhaps that’s why she flipped out, and spent much of her life consuming large amounts of drugs and alcohol. She knew that beyond all of the magic the movie industry artificially generates for our make-believe fantasy lives, it’s all just smoke and mirrors.  Unfortunately she and a host of others are no longer with us.

As far as the rest of us are concerned, and really, celebrities too, we get depressed because we get weighed down by all the tragedy in the world, both in our own lives and those we hear about in the never ending twenty-four hour news cycle.  We get focused on the wrong things, and don’t listen to our conscience. Our culture has told us, we needn’t feel guilty about anything, because everything is on the table now and acceptable. Thus, we are surprised when we get overwhelmed, not only by our own mistakes, but by the mistakes the rest of the world is making as well.  We then get trapped in this endless cycle of asking ourselves what’s wrong, but refuse to consider any answer that doesn’t fit into our neatly constructed paradigm. The paradigm that insists there is no God in heaven who is going to one day hold us all accountable for our actions. These actions that we insist in our minds are okay, but somehow we still feel guilty about them anyway.

However, in spite of the way our culture and much of the world has packaged, or tarnished God’s reputation, this is not a God who is waiting to pounce on our every infraction like some strict disciplinary earthly father, but rather a loving Father who is genuinely interested in you and I making it out of this world alive. Yes alive, that is His plan!  This Father has always been there for us even though we pay little attention to Him. He sees our pain and wants to give us something to truly place our hope and trust in.  He want us to believe in something real, not Styrofoam, plywood storefronts, or CGI.

I’ve heard many say that they like to escape into gaming or a good movie for a few hours, but really, how is that any different than escaping into a bottle of liquor or a few lines of cocaine, except you don’t have the hangover, or the embarrassment of waking up next to someone you wouldn’t have considered only a few sober hours earlier. The problem is, when you come back to reality, the problem is still there. You are still there. The same you that keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. And even if you could legitimately escape off to Narnia, or go join the rebellion in some distant galaxy, you would still be there. And we can’t fix ourselves. Especially those of us who think too much, feel too much, or just plain shut down at the slightest bit of conflict.

That’s why Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He was actually referring to a prophesy about himself from the Old Testament found in Isaiah, chapter 58. In that particular text, God was describing what truly following Him looked like and what the reward would be for those efforts.  The part of this broader text in Isaiah which really caught my attention was, Isaiah 58:9-10, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here I am. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday”.

When we call on him to fix our desperate situation, scripture is clear that he will answer. In the book of Romans, chapter 10:12-13, it states,  “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So as you consider your next move, consider that the way forward is not a “new hope” in technology but an old hope that has never left, we just forgot about Him in our technologically sophisticated brave new world that still doesn’t have any better answers.

The way forward ⇒⇒ is the way back ⇐⇐ to a faith in Christ that still holds all the answers.