Our Choice: Decline or Be Refined
Tomorrow, I turn another year older. Birthdays are a great reminder that time doesn’t stop for anyone and that we all only live once. They are a natural moment to reflect and take stock of our lives. We should always approach this contemplation with a spirit of gratitude for all of God’s blessings. However, I believe these milestones are also an important chance to assess our lives with honesty.
I can assure you that this time of year, I am always reflecting on where I have been successful, where I have failed, and where I can improve – not only for my own betterment, but for the benefit of those God has placed in my life. It’s a necessary practice, because we are all limited in our ability to control the quantity of our lifetime as human beings. Outside of prolonging our years through good health, we can only fully control the quality of the life we live.
The realization that we only get once chance to be on this earth shouldn’t cause us to live recklessly, it should inspire us to live purposefully. The problem is that this deliberate temperament requires two things that we have a hard time dealing with in modern culture: honesty and pain.
As I age, I think more and more about what God has placed in my hands. I have come to realize that at every age and in every season, we can either choose to decline or be refined. There is no in-between. As human beings, we are either going to be found groaning or growing.
Growth requires an honest assessment of our current standing and the willingness to endure the pain necessary to improve. For instance, if we want to get stronger physically, we need to look in the mirror and then go to the gym. While it might seem counterintuitive, a layman’s explanation of bodybuilding is that exercise creates tears in our muscle fibers and breaks them down, so that our body can repair and generate new, stronger muscle fibers. Whether we like it or not, the process isn’t so different for growth in most areas of our life.
While it is important to assess ourselves as individuals, I believe this is also a natural moment to examine the quality of living taking place within our broader society. Here are just a few examples of the way our population exists today.
1. Many Americans live aimlessly.
According to researchers at the University of Scranton, only 8 percent of American adults report achieving their goals. The average New Year’s resolution lasts just 3.74 months, according to The Forbes Health/One Poll survey. Yet, studies show most Americans don’t really make any meaningful plans at all. Researchers have found that two-thirds of Americans do not make plans for their life. Other studies show that 83 percent don’t even have goals.
Underlying all these statistics, Americans today generally lack purpose. According to studies from Pew Research, when Americans are asked to name those things that bring meaning to their life, family and friends are the top two items. Material well-being is the third item, and occupation is the fourth. Faith is listed all the way down at the fifth most times, at just 15 percent of Americans citing the issue.
While this percentage of Americans observing faith as a meaningful part of their life is much high than other industrialized nations, I have discussed the decline of religious practice in modern America in previous posts. It should be noted that studies from the Cato Institute and others indicate that those with strong feelings about hard work and responsibility also seem to find more purpose in their life.
2. Many Americans are addicted.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a study last year finding that nearly 49 million Americans had a substance use disorder (SUD) within the past year. Some 60 percent of the population, roughly 169 million Americans, used some type of addictive product within the same year.
Yet, these numbers do not even touch on other addictions prevalent in our culture, like technology usage, which I have discussed in previous posts.
3. A staggering number of Americans are highly medicated.
Given the prevalence of addiction, it is logical that Americans are also highly medicated. According to Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, 66 percent of American adults – more than 131 million people – use prescription drugs. More than three quarters of those above the age of 50 take prescription drugs, and 91 percent of those above the age of 80 take prescription drugs.
Furthermore, depression rates in America have hit all-time highs. According to Gallup, some 29 percent of American adults report being diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. Nearly 18 percent of Americans are currently diagnosed or are being treated with depression. Rates among women are much higher, with nearly 37 percent reporting that have once been diagnosed and 24 percent report currently dealing with a diagnosis. Younger adults have the highest rates of depression of any generation and also account for the fastest-rising rates among Americans.
Prior to the pandemic, 1 in 8 Americans were taking antidepressant drugs according to the New York Times. Prescriptions to young people for antidepressants increased 64 percent more quickly during COVID.
The Bottom Line
While I could list endless examples, I believe it is evident that many Americans today are largely unhealthy, lack purpose, and mask their mental state with whatever addiction is available. While I firmly believe that the first step to finding meaning in this life is Christ, it is clear from these statistics that many Christians must be suffering many of the same ills as the rest of the population.
In Matthew 7, Jesus instructs us to “[e]nter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Thus, according to Jesus, the life of God is found through a narrow pathway. The ditches on each side of that path are large and deep. We can easily find ourselves struggling on one side or the other.
From mankind’s beginning in Genesis, God has called us to be “fruitful and multiply.” Living this out is the tricky part. We can either become like the fig tree that Christ cursed in Mark 11 because it bore no fruit, or we can become so focused on worldly things and achievements, like the rich young ruler in Mark 10, that we lose our way into the Kingdom.
What is evident by every objective measure is that many in our culture are either aimlessly walking through life with no attempt at bearing meaningful fruit or are finding themselves empty with the futility of pursuing anything apart from God.
Considering all this, I believe our true aim must be to pursue the fruitfulness that can only be found through faithfulness. First Corinthians 4:2 says, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” I have yet to find anywhere in Scripture where God measures us by how fast we are, or how furiously we attack the corporate ladder. He is, instead, concerned with how faithful we are in what He has given us.
This is good news. No matter our age or season, we can always control our faithfulness.
The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “The beginning of faith is the beginning of fruitfulness.” I believe this idea is true – all wisdom and all good things come from turning our heart to God. However, if fruitfulness begins in our life with faith, it will be completed through our faithfulness.
We should not be surprised that many in our culture today cannot find meaning in pursuits that are meaningless. Yet, even in the right quests, meaning can be lost if not pursued with the right mission. That is why, by all objective measures, western civilization is now the richest society ever, with more access to money, resources, technology, medicine, and the arts, than ever in human history. And yet….