As we hear about wars around the world, the increasing use of military force around the globe and the ordinary people that are affected by the threat of injury and death, many people in New Zealand feel overwhelmed. Whether it is the uncertainty, the knowledge that war is breaking out more easily, sympathy with the affected, or fear of the consequences, these international events should concern us. There is deep sadness that the world so easily descends into violence and does not know the things that make for peace.

What I have noticed among some people in New Zealand, however, is also a real sense of disappointment and anger. This includes Christians who see the Gospel mainly as a source for social change. After the apparent progress towards a more tolerant, just and enlightened world in recent decades, these troubles are not only a setback, but a reversal of so much advancement. It was not supposed to happen like this. For them these wars are just the last sign that world events are not going in the direction they were meant to be going.

Other Christians are excited by events, seeing war in the Middle East as bringing the world closer to the end times. For them world events are exactly going in the direction that they are meant to be going.

These outlooks are in a sense oppositional, but yet very similar. For the people who hold these views the big picture is important and affects how they feel themselves. They feel validated when their view of the world is proven correct and disillusioned when events turn out otherwise.

I think it is right to see the big picture in these events, but questionable to put too much stock in placing events in a particular scheme of how things should work out. Jesus did say that there will be wars and rumours of wars, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. We should not be alarmed. That is the way of the world. All creation groans as if in birth pangs. God’s purposes will be fulfilled. Yes, we should be concerned and feel the tears of the world, but we can continue to trust God’s good purposes. And we should not we cheer along evil.

Even in the midst of so much suffering God’s kingdom grows, mostly in small and quiet ways. And it will continue to bring goodness and peace in an evil and confused world. I think that the best response to such international threats are informed prayer and prayerful action, as the World Day of Prayer reminded us. We need to commit the troubles of the world to God and then work for peace and justice, first of all in our own circles—in our family, our community, our city, our country. And from there we can also get involved internationally in those things that make for peace. People who do that will experience many setbacks and confusing contradictions in this world. But that should not make us lose hope. For our hope is not in that we can bring utopia here on earth through human efforts, but rather our hope is in Jesus Christ, who has already overcome sin, evil and death and will make all things new.