In the 2021 movie “Don’t Look Up,” a news anchor rebuffs his guest astronomers. Apparently, their announcement of a comet on course to destroy the Earth in six months is too depressing for his TV audience. In real life in 2022, a meteorologist on a TV morning show said the heat wave hitting Europe was the inevitable effect of climate change, but there was still time to avoid catastrophe if we acted immediately.
The interviewer laughed and said, “We want to be happy about the weather. Let’s just keep the bad news light.” It seems we’d rather reframe bad news into something “happier” than change the habits that caused it.
Penitence is for our sake and for those most vulnerable to our indifference. This is why Lent isn’t a take-it-or-leave-it 40-day self-improvement challenge. It’s an urgent, life-or-death call to communal, systemic conversion. Click To Tweet
The prophet Joel knew that the long drought followed by a locust infestation would decimate the harvest in Judah. Famine, economic demise, and death were inevitable unless the people listened to the prophet’s alarm and responded with prayer and fasting. Unlike our examples above, however, the people acted quickly, for they believed in God’s mercy.
Penitence is for our sake and for those most vulnerable to our indifference. This is why Lent isn’t a take-it-or-leave-it 40-day self-improvement challenge. It’s an urgent, life-or-death call to communal, systemic conversion. But there’s reason to hope. For although God’s prophets seem to bring bad news, they also announce the good: that even now in Christ, there is always time to change.
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