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Living Successfully In A “Detached” Society

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Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles

There’s no question in this writer’s mind that we’ve been living in what I call a “detached” society for the past three generations. Just a simple observation of people in everyday life, lends credence to this belief. Sadly, we see our society becoming more and more uninvolved, unconcerned, indifferent, and dispassionate about the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people around about them (cf. Romans 1:28-31; 2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Much of this “detachment” that we find in our society, has come about because of mistrust. With all kinds of public corruption scandals going on around us, plus the possibility of some kind of terrorist attack, we’ve come to the point where no one trusts anyone (thus the need for Homeland Security, a police presence in our schools, etc.). Along with a lack of trust, comes a lack of communication with people. Thus over a period of time, people can become “detached” from society in general.

Additionally, since the advent of so-called “labor saving devices,” we have gradually become a society of not only lazy people (one of the results being obesity), but a society who has become “detached” from reality. The ingesting of drugs into our bodies, have caused a disconnect in our mind about what is true versus what is untrue. Many people in our society will believe anything that is thrown out by our news media, no matter if it’s true or not. We don’t really communicate with people anymore, even though we have a plethora of communication devices at our disposal. We talk “at” people and “to” people rather than talking “with” people, as our Lord did (Matthew 16:13-19; John 3:1-13; John 4:1-26; John 11:1-46).

The ultimate cause of our “detached” society, is our society’s effort to become disconnected from God at every level; home, school and government (Romans 1:28; cf. Genesis 6:5; Mark 7:21-23). We have literally become our own worst enemy.

An obvious question would be, “How do we as God’s people live successfully in a “detached” society?”

Here are three suggestions:

1) Become living examples of the spiritual teachings and principles found in God‘s word, the Bible (Gal. 2:20). Our godly lives may be the only Bible folks will ever read (and believe me, our world is watching!).

2) Promote the reading and study of the Bible at every opportunity presented with folks with whom we interact (Acts 8:25-40; Acts 11:19-21; Acts 14:1-7; Acts 18:1-4,24-28; Acts 26; Acts 28:17-31).

3) Display a genuine interest in people and the problems they face. Learn to talk “with” people, not “at” or “to” people, remembering that people don’t care how much we “know” until they “know” how much we care.

By incorporating the above three suggestions into our lives and everyday living, we can hopefully turn our “detached” society into an “attached” society, trusting one another and above all, trusting God to once again bless our nation by restoring moral sanity.

Let us fervently pray that God will help us and our nation in this effort!

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