Let's Talk About America's Irrational Obsession and What Really Threatens Us All

The cancer eating away at our soul.

How embarrassing it must be! Last week, the California legislature sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature that would phase out the sale of gasoline-powered automobiles until 2035 when they would become illegal. 

Only days later, while the bill was awaiting his signature, the California regulatory group that manages the state’s power grid asked Californians to forgo charging their electric vehicles because of high demands on the system during the heat wave.

I can taste the irony of it. Buy only electric cars, but don’t charge them.

I’m not one to disparage electric vehicles. We employed electric four-wheelers around here for a couple of years. But we abandoned them after running out of juice in the middle of a flooded rice field a time or two. It’s not like you can just tote a can of electricity to your disabled vehicle then go on about your business. It didn’t take us long to realize that electric vehicles probably don’t fit into our master plan.

Still, however, I’m all for doing what we can to help this planet become a cleaner and more pristine place. Who doesn’t want purer water and air? And if the electric vehicle is the way to accomplish that, I’m on board.

But after it’s all said and done, California has provided us with all the evidence that we need to know that we just aren’t there yet when it comes to this technology. California’s sad experience with the strain of high demands on the public grid proves my point. Still, these zealots press on trying to force all of us to drive EVs.

I’ve said all of this about California’s push to force its citizens to make the shift from gasoline and diesel engines to electric vehicles for a reason. Californians can do what Californians want to do. I don’t live there, so I don’t have a dog in their hunt.

But what is going on in California does illustrate how one’s irrational obsession with a political agenda can override common sense and truth. When you don’t have an over-arching worldview that explains how we got here and what our purpose is, this is what happens. Irrationality! The abandonment of reason and common sense!

I say all of this because America’s preoccupation with climate change is just a symptom of a greater cancer that is eating away at our soul. On the rare occasions that I do watch cable news shows, I don’t have to view the programming too long before I see reports of horrific violence and hostility breaking out across the land. Just this past weekend, four were shot and two killed at a supper club in Florida. Ten were stabbed to death in Canada. Ten shot and two killed at a university in Virginia. I haven’t even listed the murders in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Or even the ones here in Monroe, Louisiana.

I’m looking at all of this and wondering why in the world we’re talking about climate change at all. In my view, there are far greater threats to public safety than melting polar ice caps. People are getting maimed and killed every day as a direct result of not knowing God or the premium he places on each and every human life, for crying out loud.

I see violence everywhere I look, but I’ve never met anyone who died from a melting polar ice cap. Have you?

What I have seen, thousands of times in my lifetime, are lives that were destroyed for lack of purpose. All too often, they end in a senseless death. But more often, they just smolder, simmering in sadness, existing but not really living.

If you want to talk about what really threatens America (and all of mankind), it’s this: a disconnection with anything or anyone that would give our lives true meaning. We don’t know how we got here, much less what we’re supposed to be doing.

If this is your reality, why wouldn’t you be depressed and angry? Why wouldn’t you lash out at others? If a person doesn’t know they have a creator who loves them, how can we expect them to be happy?

The problem is, when we don’t live with a sense that we have a supreme life-giver who gives order and meaning to our lives, we grasp at straws. We seethe and gnash our teeth at the slightest insult. We’re just looking for meaning, something we can point to and say, “Show me some respect! I matter!”

People aren’t stupid. If all we’ve ever known about the cosmos is that we are here for no reason, we begin to draw our own conclusions. We fear that we might not matter after all, but there is that inner voice inside all of our heads that says we do matter. We know we do. We may not know why, but we know we do.

Do you want to know what it looks like when humans are ignorant of God? It looks like confusion, chaos, and meaninglessness. People unaware of their purpose begin pulling stuff out of thin air, anything that makes them feel alive. They’ll begin to question things like: What is my gender? I was born a male, but perhaps I should transition to female. What species am I? Maybe I should wear animal costumes and bark at passersby as if I really am a dog. The sky is falling, and I am compelled to spend my life warning others of impending doom.

Anything to help us cry out, “See me! Feel me!”

In the midst of it all, we cave in to our human tendency to ignore the ultimate reality — that there is a God in heaven and that we will all stand before him to give an account for how we have lived our lives (Hebrews 9:27). When we don’t know God, we forget that the entire universe is rushing to a divine appointment. You talk about global warming! Every single element in the cosmos will be melted in a very fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10).

That’s real climate change — cosmic climate change.

I don’t say these things joyfully. As a matter of fact, I am tormented when I see my fellow human brothers and sisters latch onto a philosophy so empty of meaning that I know they will never find an identity that is eternal. They will never be happy, and they will never find contentment. Without God, they will always be miserable … always! I know this because I couldn’t find it either until God saved my worthless hide from certain death by the power of Jesus Christ and gave me new life.

If I had the world’s attention for only a brief moment, I would beg the transgendered, the radical environmentalists, the violent, the political extremists, the crony capitalists, the greedy, and anyone else who treads the earth spouting confusion, chaos, and rage to listen to one passage from the Bible. It’s life changing. It restores order to the chaos! It replaces external identity with one that is internal and eternal! Listen to it:

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.

—Acts 17:26-27

This is Good News, America! Don’t despair! Don’t be afraid! All that you’re looking for is within arm’s reach. It’s right there for the taking! All you have to do is reach out and grab his hand. Identity, inner peace, joy, and fulfillment are right there at your fingertips.