{"id":3228,"date":"2023-12-07T09:38:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3228"},"modified":"2023-12-07T09:38:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:38:47","slug":"christmas-bells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/07\/christmas-bells\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Bells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em>\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was sick with grief as Christmas approached in 1863.
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He was still mourning the death of his wife Frances, who had died in a house fire.\u00a0 His oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, or Charlie, had enlisted to fight for the North in the Civil War \u2013 against his father\u2019s wishes.
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On December 1, Longfellow got word that Charlie had been severely wounded at the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia.
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While personally tending Charlie in the days that followed, Longfellow often heard church bells.\u00a0 Conflicted and disillusioned about his faith \u2013 especially the seemingly empty promises of a so-called Prince of Peace \u2013 Longfellow wrote a poem called \u201cChristmas Bells.\u201d

I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old, familiar carols play
And wild and sweet their words repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/em>

And thought how, as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/em>

And in despair I bowed my head; \u201cThere is no peace on earth,\u201d I said.<\/em>
For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/em>
\u00a0
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:\u00a0\u201cGod is not dead, nor doth he sleep;<\/em>
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men!\u201d<\/em>
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Longfellow goes from joy to despair to hope in just a few short stanzas, reflecting a universal human longing:\u00a0 Since God has promised to heal our broken world, why hasn\u2019t he done so already?\u00a0
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If you do a quick survey of friends, family, and total strangers, it won\u2019t take you long to hear exasperated sighs that 2023 can\u2019t end soon enough \u2013 accompanied by the creeping suspicion that 2024 may turn out to be even worse.
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The world is a total mess and going downhill, right?
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In the words of a certain sportscaster: Not so fast, my friend.
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Data from scores of reliable sources suggest that we are living in the healthiest, safest, and most economically vibrant time in human history.\u00a0 Ronald Bailey and Marian L. Tupy make that clear in their 2020 book, Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know, and Many Others You Will Find Interesting<\/em>.\u00a0
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Here are a few well-documented facts that should challenge our fear that all is lost:
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Poverty is on the run.\u00a0 Two centuries ago, an estimated 84% of the world\u2019s population lived in extreme poverty.\u00a0 By 1950, that had dropped to 50% – the basis of the truism that the world is divided between the Haves and Have-Nots.\u00a0 Today only 8.6% of the world\u2019s citizens are in grinding poverty \u2013 and that number continues to decline.\u00a0
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Since the Industrial Revolution kicked into full gear about 250 years ago, the global standard of living has increased tenfold \u2013 and much more than that in the richest countries.\u00a0 The number of people living in urban slums has \u201cdecreased sharply on every continent since 1990.\u201d\u00a0
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Trees are making a comeback.\u00a0 The acreage covered by forests in North America, Asia, and Europe has been steadily increasing for decades.\u00a0 There are more trees now in Europe than during the Middle Ages.\u00a0
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Global conflict is in remission.\u00a0 I know, I know.\u00a0 Every news broadcast this fall has begun with horrific images from Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine.\u00a0 And those conflicts have indeed been horrific.\u00a0 But we are currently living in an amazingly long period of peace between the world\u2019s most powerful nations \u2013 almost 80 years since the end of World War II \u2013 which is something civilization has not seen for more than a millennium.\u00a0
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The chance that someone will die because of natural catastrophe \u2013 earthquake, flood, wildfire, tsunami, drought, or volcanic eruption \u2013 has declined an astonishing 99% since the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Give credit to the technologies that help us predict disasters, then help us respond quickly to those in need.\u00a0
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In 1820, global literacy was 10% and average life expectancy was 30 years.\u00a0 Today, global literacy is 90% and life expectancy has soared to 72.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
Author and pastor Kevin DeYoung writes, \u201cTechnologies that no one had in 1900 are now in virtually every household in this country and in many countries around the world: electricity, refrigerator, car, indoor plumbing, radio, air-conditioning, washer\/dryer, dishwasher, microwave, television, cell phone, digital camera, computer, Internet.\u201d\u00a0
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The world is safer, richer, healthier, and blessed with more technological conveniences than ever before.\u00a0
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So why isn\u2019t that the lead story every night on the national news?\u00a0
\u00a0
For one thing, there are still some serious problems out there.\u00a0 Climate change, oceanic pollution, and nuclear arms stockpiles are among the issues that will continue to demand attention and action from the world\u2019s leaders.\u00a0 Likewise, there\u2019s something inherently more dramatic about bad news than good news.\u00a0 A shooting, a mugging, a bombing, and a plane crash will always grab more headlines than the news that millions of people just experienced another routinely happy day.
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Still, in the light of so many positive storylines, why do our hearts so often feel so heavy?
\u00a0
DeYoung observes, \u201cIt\u2019s one of the great paradoxes of our time: almost everything is getting better, but we keep feeling worse.\u201d
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At the root of those feelings, almost certainly, is disappointment.\u00a0 We\u2019re disappointed in other people and disappointed in ourselves.\u00a0 Poverty may be diminishing, but selfishness is definitely sticking around.\u00a0 So are pride, greed, anger, and the rest of the so-called Seven Deadly Sins.\u00a0 Technological conveniences are wonderful, but they don\u2019t fill our hearts with love or generate the capacity to forgive.\u00a0
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Only God can do that.\u00a0
\u00a0
Longfellow, for his part, experienced disappointment with God. \u00a0Ringing church bells became a reminder of what he saw as God\u2019s unkept promises.\u00a0 \u201cPeace on earth and good will toward men.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0
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Then it dawned on Longfellow that God often takes \u201cthe long way.\u201d\u00a0
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It was a long time before God\u2019s people left their lives of slavery in Egypt.\u00a0 They had to journey a long way through the wilderness to reach the Promised Land.\u00a0 It was a long time \u2013 almost a thousand years \u2013 before one of King David\u2019s descendants finally emerged as the true heir to God\u2019s throne.\u00a0 And it was a long time before the prophets\u2019 words about the Messiah were fulfilled.
\u00a0
The Christmas story is Exhibit A that God often takes the long way.\u00a0
\u00a0
He favors long periods of time in which we learn how to pray, to trust, and to follow him even when it appears that all is lost and hope is nowhere to be seen \u2013 even as we learn that microwaves and washing machines, blessings that they are, can never meet the needs of our souls.\u00a0
\u00a0
Longfellow would probably have been surprised to learn that his private reflections in 1863 would one day become a Christmas carol.
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But his words of hope still ring true:\u00a0
\u00a0
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:\u00a0\u201cGod is not dead, nor doth he sleep;<\/em>
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was sick with grief as Christmas approached in 1863.\u00a0He was still mourning the death of his wife Frances, who had died in a house fire.\u00a0 His oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, or Charlie, had enlisted to fight for the North in the Civil War \u2013 against his father\u2019s wishes.\u00a0On… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,178],"class_list":["post-3228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-patience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3230,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions\/3230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}