I was having a discussion with someone about the 1990s. They were a child during that decade. I was in my 40s. Most in the discussion were saying how it was if not the best decade of their lives it’s way up there on the list. It was the best decade of my life I think. The late 80s and 90s saw the world change for the better in so many ways. I got married in 1987 into a wonderful pre-built family. I got to be a dad and a husband, fulfilling a dream and a prophecy. In 1990 the Soviet Union and all it represented dissolved into history without a shot being fired or a single drop of bloodshed. Seems overnight the biggest threat to world peace was just gone. The Berlin wall, symbol of that threat, was taken down and Germany was reunited to become the most stable and sound country in Europe. The evil of Apartheid in South Africa ended and all sanctions were lifted enabling the country to become the most stable and prosperous country in Africa. Even communist China began to loosen up it’s control and began to form a free economy that has prospered beyond all expectations. The American economy was doing so well that we eliminated the national debt. Most don’t remember this. We ended the 90s with a surplus. Other countries owed us money. We had so much hope. It literally filled the air. That all ended with 9/11. But did it have to? I think we reacted out of fear and got involved in wars we had no business being involved in. The cost of that wiped out the surplus in a few years. Fear began to become the dominant feeling in the air. My own life fell apart too. I lost the best job I ever had. My sweet wife Gida died suddenly on my 50th birthday. All our savings and assets vanished. If the 90s were the best decade, the 00s were the worst decade of my life. I do not think I’ve ever fully recovered from that. I did have a bit of a recovery in 2011-12 but I see now the effects are still there. I did get married again to my Cindy and it’s been great. But I never really recovered financially to where I was before. So here is my question: How do we get back there?

As the church we should be leading in this area of restoring hope. Are we? Or are we helping maintain the fear? We need to make some decisions. Is “sound doctrine” really as important as loving people? Is recruiting people into our church and way of thinking (what most call evangelism these days) more important than restoring lives? If we are going to be the restorers, we first need to be restored. The church must heal. We must give up our desire for vengeance. We really need to be “saved” again. We need to stop being the doctrine and sin police and start being the restorers of the breach. All of the issues we face, racism, abortion, LGBT, ISIS, can be dealt with. We saw the big bad Soviet Union collapse overnight. It can happen again with ISIS and Al Queda. We start by loving people unconditionally. Love gays. Love Muslims. Love all people. It has to start with the church. Where else will it start? It will not be dealt with if we continue to scapegoat, categorize and treat people like things and like everything bad that happens is because of “those people”.

The biggest thing lacking these days is hope I believe. The first thing the church needs to do is restore hope. I’m pretty sure we don’t do this by fighting and bickering with each other publicly (or privately). We really need to tone down some of this rhetoric. Christians fighting with other Christians who have a slightly different understanding of some issue. My Lord Jesus. What have we come to! This is not helping! We call for revival. Oh we need reviving. Just not in the way many think. We need a revival of hope. In the church to stop the infighting. And then once the church is restored we can bring that to the world.