Do you ever feel like getting through life is like surviving a vicious storm? Some days the pressure to make the right decisions about music, television, movies, fads, fashion or the values our culture puts on all these things crashes down on you like 30 foot waves whipped by hurricane winds. You might feel like you are losing your way, and that you are at risk of crashing onto the rocks or becoming hopelessly lost. Some people have just decided that the storm is just too dangerous. So they board up their hearts and withdraw completely to survive.
Christ wants you to do just the opposite. Like the first disciples, he sends you into the world, as threatening as it may be, not just to survive but to change it. He wants you to enjoy the journey. All he asks is that you make the right decisions about what you watch, what you listen to, what you buy and what you value. If Christ is your compass, you will never get lost. In fact, not only will you survive the storm, in the process, you’ll calm the sea as well.
Christ’s Course Correction Log Book
- When the press makes fun of Christian beliefs…Write the Newspaper or TV station and tell them how you feel
- If the music you listen to promotes the culture of drugs…Choose music from artists that you know are against drugs
- When the value and dignity of life is ignored by abortion…Pray for lost souls and participate in prayer rallies to express your beliefs
What Does the Bible Say About Culture
Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. – 1 Timothy 4:12
When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at the moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. – Matthew 10:19-20
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. – Philippians 4:8
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. – James 2:14, 17
A Point to Ponder
Christ said, “I am the truth”; He did not say “I am the custom.” – St. Toribio
A Disciple’s Prayer in Today’s Culture
“Heavenly Father, thank You for the security I feel in placing my faith in You. Give me the strength to survive and the courage to thrive in the culture war around me. Defend me in this battle and inspire me to be an example to my friends of the love and understanding I see in the life of Your Son. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says that He is the good shepherd the prophets had promised to Israel. He is the shepherd-prince, the new David—who frees people from bondage to sin and gathers them into one flock, the Church, under a new covenant, made in His blood (see Ezekiel 34:10-13, 23-31).
