Christmas in an Age of Existential Crisis

It’s a great time to be alive, it’s a hard time to be alive. David French writes about this on National Review:

We live in an odd time. On the one hand, our cultural aristocrats are giddy at the decline in American faith. They celebrate each new study showing that “nones” — those without a religious affiliation — are on the rise, as if the loss of faith means the opening of the heart. The age of tolerance is upon us, they say: America is breaking the shackles of the past, and Americans are free to indulge their every physical whim. It’s a great time to be alive.

But then there are other studies that no one is celebrating. If it’s a great time to be alive, why are so many choosing to die? Suicide rates are rising “sharply.” Opioid overdoses have hit “record highs.” And yesterday the Washington Post reported that “Americans are drinking themselves to death at record rates.” Among white Americans, self-inflicted death rates are so high that they’ve counteracted the long-term benefits of extraordinary advances in medical science. And for every American who consciously commits suicide — or who is so indifferent to his body’s fate that he feeds it vast amounts of drugs and alcohol — there are dozens more who feel like death, lost in the haze of depression.

So, what’s the answer?  There’s no one culprit and no magic bullet.  But there is a solution.  (And only one.)  His name is Jesus… and at Christmas, this is an appropriate time to recognize this truth. David continues:

The true tragedy of America’s loss of faith is a separation from the source of our life and hope. It’s too trite to say that Jesus makes life easy. After all, He’s the one who demands that we “take up our cross” to follow Him. Jesus doesn’t give jobs, grant earthly glory, or guarantee harmony in your family. He’s not Santa.

But He does give us eternal hope, extraordinary purpose, and exceptional strength. The hope of Christ isn’t found merely in the fact of His existence but in the imitation of His life. He demonstrated humility we can’t comprehend, came to Earth to serve rather than reign, and provided the eternal model of selfless sacrifice when He substituted His life for ours on the cross.

Okay, that’s a little bit more Easter-y than Christmas, but I think you’ll forgive me.

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 

Acts 5:31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Philippians 2:8-10 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth 

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