Joel 1:15-18. Joel is lamenting how much suffering there is as the day of the Lord grows closer. Food is cut off, joy and gladness are gone, the seed shrivels, the storehouses are empty, the grain has failed. The beasts groan - the cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, the sheep are dismayed. All of this is because "the day of the Lord is near."

So the suffering intensifies as the Lord grows closer. Why? Because when he gets here, he wants us all to run to him, our Savior. If we all are comfortably living our own (seemingly) self-sufficient lives we would have no need to turn to him, we might not even notice that he's here or, if impossible to ignore, we might convince ourselves that he is an evil force, come to disrupt our way of life (that's the clinging to attachments that I have so felt him calling us to give up).

Our way of life has to be disrupted before he comes. We really do think we made all of this, we have constructed this complex, intertwined society and we forget that he is the source of everything. He can cut it off in a blink, and he has been doing so in smaller ways to gently call to us (remember the empty store shelves?). Because we still need to remember how dependent we are God for everything, our way of life continues to be disrupted. Fortunately, we live in a country where that disruption is still pretty comfortable, although it could get much worse. Since it hasn't gotten too bad, yet, I think we may still have some time, but we should use it to evangelize and bring others back to him.

I do see signs all around me that the future may be a bit rough, though. For example, "the seed shrivels under the clods" - birth rates have plummeted all over the world - the US population growth is very close to zero and many countries are at negative growth.That doesn't show a healthy hope for the future. The younger generation does not seem to have the same natural desire to continue the species. While some are getting married and having children, families are smaller. Many others in their child-bearing years seem to be acting on what they have been tought by society - to live for themselves; do what they want; love who they want, without repurcussions (including unwanted children); control their sexuality and gender; and make themselves "happy" in the here and now. That is not a good prescription for a healthy future. (Also, they do not, in fact, seem very happy!)

As much as this seems lamentable, though, and as sad as Joel's words are, I do have so much hope -  joy, even! The Lord is coming, he has promised! If we have to go through suffering first for the sake of those who will be saved by it, that's good!

We want all to be saved, and the suffering will get us to the point where we will hopefully all run to him when he gets here!