I Am:

Live anywhere for any amount of time and you’ll encounter tragic stories of violence that flood our news sites. Stories of mass beheadings, mass shootings, police officer shootings, police officers being murdered, stabbing deaths, the 9-11 terror attacks, etc.

We must take careful notice, however, that none of this originated in our modern era.  Recall Andrea Yates, the mother accused of drowning all of her children in a bathtub; mass suicide/murder in Guyana, and a plethora of other horrors that bloody the pages of human history.

People have blamed drugs and alcohol; religion, politicians, and governments; pools, tubs, and, cars; bombs, knives, and fists; liberals, conservatives, and communists.

But the single common factor found in all of these atrocities is the dark, sin-sickened hearts that plague fallen human beings.  From the dawn of humanity, Man’s wickedness has been widespread (both in the days of Noah and now), and that every thought of our minds is evil all the time (Genesis 6:5).  Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed about Judah – as if we didn’t prove or know it even in our own hearts – that sin is written with an iron stylus on the heart (Jeremiah 17:1). Jeremiah continued, “the human heart is more deceitful than anything else, and is incurable” (Jeremiah 17:10).

Left to our own devices and sin, apart from Jesus Christ, and separated from our Creator, the simple truth is this: We will all surely die!  Sin has a 100% success rate among fallen humanity, and we prove daily that we truly are in need of a Savior.  We can blame everyone and everything else in this world for what’s wrong with us, but when we fail to look inside and observe our own darkness of heart to see its deep depravity, we will forever continue blaming others.

God has been patient with us so far, allowing us to take in beauty and chaos, life and death, victory and defeat, and the majesty of the heavens and the earth.  It’s something theologians call "common grace". And if witnessing all that we have doesn’t draw us to our Creator, crying out for mercy and forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, then we will forever be lost, wondering who or what to blame next, proving that we have ultimately suppressed truth (Romans 1:18). 

When asked “What’s wrong with the world?” GK Chesterton simply and humbly answered, “I am.”