Cope or Innovate

I just finished a fantastic lecture by Eric Cline, author of 1177BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed and After 1177BC. What really struck me, listening to this, was how successfully different cultures transitioned from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. There was a range of success. The Phoenicians innovated and reinvented themselves, and did very well. Egypt merely survived. Others were only able to cope and return in diminished form, if at all. Some, like the Hittites, disappear from history completely.

I remember going white water canoeing on the River of No Return (Salmon River) when I was younger. I remember being on a placid calm waveless stretch of water just watching the point ahead where the river dropped off into frothing white water. I remember the terrifying and unyielding approach of those rapids. Also remember having a great and invigorating time getting through it. I feel similarly at the moment, because I can feel great change on the horizon. That and I can read the news.

We are now approaching a hinge point in history, a New Axial Age, if you will. Things are going to change, faster and more differently than any of us expect. Will we merely cope, or will we innovate and reinvent ourselves, and become new creatures in Christ?  I don’t think Christ wants us to merely cope. He has greater and much grander plans than that.