Dear Friend,
It happens to me every year on the Fourth of July: I find myself torn between the country of my birth and my adopted homeland. The first thirty-one years of my life were spent in the UK, but in many ways, the past forty-one in the US have actually deepened my ties with family and friends who still live on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
This now is the “land that I love,” although it has taken me time to admit it. In our early days in America, I told Susan that when I die, I would like my remains to be taken back to Scotland for burial. Back then, when I sang “God Bless America,” I would change the last line and sing “my home from home” rather than “my home sweet home”!
I am no longer between two minds on this matter, having been swallowed up by the generous affection that is uniquely American. As Christians, we are citizens of a nation but also citizens of heaven awaiting our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing Jesus defines our citizenship. Yet it is right for us to care about our country and to pray for our leaders in the awareness that they are in great need of God’s indwelling Spirit.
As the Olympics continue, many of us will feel an increased sense of patriotism. The games in France kindle my memories of Scotsman Eric Liddell’s triumph in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Last month, we celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his historic race. When he was asked how he had managed to win the gold medal and establish a new world record in the 400 meters, his answer was characteristically modest. “I ran the first 200 as fast as I could, and with God’s help, I ran the second 200 even faster.”
In 1925, Eric returned to China, his birthplace. There he taught boys and girls what it means to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). He died in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945. He was forty-three years old.
Eric Liddell lived his life and faced his death as a testimony to the answer to the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” His assurance of salvation is aptly summarized in the answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”: “That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
As I write this letter and think of Eric Liddell leading the crowd in singing “Jesus Shall Reign” as he boarded the train to China, I am struck by the contrast of that image to those his age today. The article beside me describes Gen Z, young people between age fourteen and twenty-eight, and highlights the pessimism of this generation, which is “fueled by growing global unrest, wars and disruptions, financial crises, and … feelings of ‘climate anxiety.’” Gen Z has grown up under the influence of a view, described by George Weigel in the foreword of the book Light of the World, that believes humanity is just “a congeries of cosmic chemical accidents … with no intentional origin, no noble destiny, and thus no path to take through history.” Unlike Liddell, who at age twenty-two knew his victory came from God, they have no “comfort in life and in death” and no foundation from which to sing, “His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.” The answer to Gen Z’s dilemma is not found in education but in the person of Jesus, who is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created .... And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15–17).
So let me suggest that in addition to remembering our leaders, you add Gen Z to your prayers this month.
Both of our August book recommendations assure us that we are loved, guarded, and made new in Jesus. The Lord of Psalm 23 and Remade: Embracing Your Complete Identity in Christ would both be excellent books to share with a young adult you know who is searching for a Savior.
Thank you for your partnership, which continues to make it possible for us to share the good news so that others will by grace alone and through faith alone become citizens of heaven.
With my love in the Lord Jesus,
Alistair
PS: Make a date to enjoy viewing the movie Chariots of Fire.
