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America
is waiting for the redacted version of the Mueller Report to be
published later this morning. We will not be able to read the report in
its entirety since it contains information that was presented to a grand
jury and is therefore subject to secrecy rules.
In
addition, intelligence officials will redact information that could
compromise sensitive sources and methods or hamper other current
investigations. And the Justice Department will redact information it
believes unfairly infringes on the privacy of “peripheral third parties”
and damages their reputations.
What difference, then, will the report make?
Five lies that explain our culture
Pick
a subject, from the president to abortion to gender identity to the
environment. Can you think of a single significant issue on which
Americans are largely agreed?
What is causing our nation’s cultural divides to grow ever deeper and more vitriolic?
Here they are:
One: Career success is fulfilling.
Brooks notes that such success “alone does not provide positive peace
or fulfillment. If you build your life around it, your ambitions will
always race out in front of what you’ve achieved, leaving you anxious
and dissatisfied.”
Two: I can make myself happy.
This is the lie of self-sufficiency and the deception that happiness is
an individual accomplishment. By contrast, “happiness is found amid
thick and loving relationships. It is found by defeating
self-sufficiency for a state of mutual dependence. It is found in the
giving and receiving of care.”
Three: Life is an individual journey.
People who live best invest in people and community. Then, “by planting
themselves in one neighborhood, one organization or one mission, they
earn trust. They have the freedom to make a lasting difference. It’s the
chains we choose that set us free.”
Four: You have to find your own truth.
According to Brooks, “The reality is that values are created and passed
down by strong, self-confident communities and institutions.”
Five: Rich and successful people are worth more than poorer and less successful people. This lie claims that “you are what you accomplish” and that “if you perform well, people will love you.”
Brooks
concludes: “No wonder our society is fragmenting. We’ve taken the lies
of hyper-individualism and we’ve made them the unspoken assumptions that
govern how we live.
“We talk a lot about the political revolution we need. The cultural revolution is more important.”
The spiritual revolution we need
I agree completely. But I also believe that behind such a cultural revolution lies a spiritual revolution we need even more.
Today
is Maundy Thursday. Tonight, Jesus will pray in the Garden of
Gethsemane so fervently that his sweat will become “like great drops of
blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). This night he will choose to
take our collective sins on his sinless soul and die in our place as our
atoning sacrifice.
What
happened in the Garden of Gethsemane is the remedy for what happened in
the Garden of Eden. There, humanity believed the lie that we can “be
like God” (Genesis 3:5). That lie is the foundation of every lie David
Brooks exposed and every temptation we face.
It
is the lie that we have the right to choose whether unborn children
live or die, that we can decide our gender and view pornography and have
sex outside of heterosexual marriage and ignore the poor without
consequence. It is the lie that our lies aren’t lies, that truth is what
we say it is and God is who we believe him to be.
Jesus’
death reveals the lie behind our cultural lies. If we could experience
abundant life in any way except through the cross, the Father would not
have sent his Son to Calvary to be tortured and executed. If we could be
fulfilled and happy without God—if we could do life on our own, find
our own truth, and do enough to be truly significant—Jesus would have
made a different choice in Gethsemane.
Choosing Eden or Gethsemane
I
invite you to reread David Brooks’ list and see whether you’re living
by any of the lies he exposes. Then I invite you to choose a Garden:
Eden or Gethsemane.
Will
you be your own God today? Or will you make your Savior your Lord? Will
you submit your day to his Spirit and serve him in gratitude for his
grace?
Which Garden would God say you inhabited yesterday?
Which do you choose today?
NOTE: I want to thank each of you who shared stories with us yesterday about ways The Daily Article
is helping you make a difference in lives you influence. Your stories
will help us grow our readership as we share them at conferences,
private events, and in promotional materials.
If
you'd like to participate, please reply to this email to share your
testimony. Of course, we will protect the privacy of your name and
personal information.
It is a great privilege to share this ministry with you each day.
In Christ,
Jim Denison
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