Being GUYS like we used to be
A twenty-first-century label, something we were and that we've let our children become.
When we were the GUYS, the same things went on around us as now, with the difference that today they're much more pronounced because they're openly on display.
In my teenage years I dealt with drug addicts, gay people, hooligans, drunks and so on, and away from my family it all seemed normal to me. Probably times were so different that even parents didn't notice; maybe it was enough for the kids to come home "normal" and everything could carry on in family peace.
Today we adults, from that youth hidden behind so much respectability, find ourselves receiving the same situations of back then, but with lots of assertiveness from these guys who want to be explicit about not wanting to be anything. A sort of "I don't know who I am, I'll let you know later". As if fate decided everything, even sex, even though a sex is already evident.
I no longer expect anything from this world, not even that it will change, because I'm certainly not the one who can change it.
The Bible says so too: there has always been perversion and sin, so why are we surprised today? Why do we think what's happening today is absurd? In reality it has all always been there.
I was talking with someone who told me about a friend of theirs who was a Satanist, and not even one of those who make sacrifices, but another kind. I wasn't even that surprised, because in the end it's always the same story. You hear about these Satanists and their rituals, and I'm starting to see that times are hard for them too, because they're forced to have various other ranks to push forward their unreasonable reasons.
Oh yes, I don't feel like listening to nonsense anymore. In 2021 people believe in the devil, even giving him importance he doesn't deserve, but they don't consider that if we talk about him, it's because someone, that is God, threw him down here.
All this importance given to the devil, as if you gave importance to the pot and not the potter. Satan exists because God the Father exists. But God too has been perverted, because people have turned God into a thousand other gods.
God is now money, health, luck, revenge, illness, etc. Yes, because there are so many gods, but everyone thinks they can reach God through statues of dead saints or pseudo-religion.
Everything in this world has been perverted. Everything good that could have been granted to us has been subverted by Satan, so what should I be surprised about?
We still think we can evangelise someone. Ahhh no, sorry, you can't say evangelise, otherwise I come across as too evangelical and so I'm labelled as belonging to another religion. If instead I said "talk about God", I'd come across as too religious, or a Catholic charismatic.
Anyway! Do we still think we can talk to someone about God? Nobody wants to listen anymore. Everyone knows God, but they'll tell you that God doesn't give them money unless they get up in the morning to go to work; others will tell you that God is up there and doesn't care about what's happening; still others think God punishes by killing.
There's a whiff of conspiracy against God, and why do you think that is? Because all this was supposed to be simple, but Satan wanted to complicate it.
The devil has found so many aspiring followers that by now he's the boss. Everyone is driven by money, but nobody looks for a job anymore; they're all YouTubers or TikTokers. A single gesture is enough to become famous and count your followers. By now followers are on a par with Bitcoin. The more followers you have, the more digital currency they credit you, the more real money you can get and do what you've never done, that is, work without knowing how to work. Then it all turns into photos, reels and cameos just to stay on the crest of the wave a bit longer. Then, as we know, the wave breaks, and you just go back to YouTube to look for the shooting stars.
What are you really looking for? A simple life made of simple money. The devil tempts you, God leaves you free, you take advantage of it, the devil stops wasting time with you and, having ended up in despair, you go back to that God to look for comfort. In the end only God the Father takes back that son who has squandered his life and doesn't even have a place in this society anymore.
I no longer expect a "church" to change a person, but I do expect people who, knowing Jesus, can be a help to those who suffer and would like to find a spring to quench their thirst. In fact you can't change unless you have the will to change. The worldwide Church will be formed when everyone's gaze is turned to heaven and no longer to the things around us.
The famous Rocky Balboa film with Stallone that we all watched as kids said: if I can change, the whole world can change. At that moment he had just taken a beating, but although in pain he was victorious, and the message was to change. I'm not a boxer, but I've certainly taken plenty of blows, yet I'm spiritually victorious in Christ, who still gives me the strength to tell you to change.
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