It never matters what day I try to tune in to the news or look through social outlets; there's always some form of negative news or some form of violence to watch live footage of or read about after the fact. I used to enjoy watching the news; it was fun to see what was happening in the world around us, and I used to feel empowered to be up on the 'relevant' topics. (Which, now that I look at it, and as I've mentioned here, relevance is, well, relative.) Now, I see the same basic news day in and day out: America is going to Hell in a hand-basket and there's been some new terrorist attack somewhere.

I know these things are the stories that attract watchers. I know this is where the ratings come from and that's whatever. That's not what I want to attack this time. Rather, I want to attack the state of the world. The world is falling apart; evilness is creeping up much more frequently than ever before. Why, in such an 'advanced' society, does it seem like darkness is the thing that is growing more and more? Why don't the things that we are appalled by just go away? Why can't the light seem to win?

The lighter side of life doesn't seem to be winning because it isn't trying to win. People are content to sit back and watch as the world crumbles, and they do so while pushing the blame and responsibility onto someone else. The impact of one person by themselves isn't always noticeable to a large crowd. To a small, immediate crowd, it is. To impact the world and save it from the state that it's slowly falling into would take many people. It might even take, dare I say it, the vast majority of the world to change the world into one that is actually worth living in.

I say this as a call to all the people of the world, but I especially say it as a call to all the Christians in the world. Start acting like a civil human being. It's not that hard to be a better than decent human being and change the world around you by being a better you, let alone just being a regular, decent human being that can have a much smaller positive impact. Act like you care. Be a better you. For Christians specifically, be Christ-like. It's what we are called to be, and I see significantly small amounts of it on a day-to-day basis. For everyone else, do what you believe you should, but make the world around you better than it was the day you were brought into the world.

The world has become a dark place, but from the darkness shine the brightest of lights.