Frozen Webs and Hardened Mud

I sometimes describe modern British culture as though it were an increasingly cold winter. Opposition to basic Christian principles is becoming bolder; what might have been passive apathy two decades ago is morphing into a latent hostility. There are some minor benefits for the churches amidst this shift. Just as frozen spiderwebs become more visible, and therefore less dangerous to flying insects, so cultural chill renders some threats less hazardous. Fifty years ago, apparently thriving congregations led by gospel-denying men and women, persuaded many that it didn’t really matter what you believed. The current cold atmosphere has closed most of those churches down. The many nominal Christians who occupied pews, enjoying the moralising and social aspects of church life, are much diminished in number. They who venture out in these cold winds aren’t going for the cups of tea and hobnobs. Likewise, the silly rivalries between denominations are all but gone. The enemy is not the Brethren or the Baptists, but the arctic spiritual climate in which we coexist. It is not always easy being a Christian in modern Britain; yet the traps and difficulties of the past are sometimes lessened in our own time.

Secondly, one of my Sunday walks to chapel last month was one of the quickest I have recorded. At an hour and ten minutes, and with no obvious need for urgency and haste, we were there by 10am. The reason, I think, was the frozen ground. Though the air nipped our faces, the ground was as sure as concrete. There were no soggy, squelching tracts to negotiate, no wide, alternative routes required to bypass some vast, brown puddle. Once more, a useful benefit bestowed by a hard frost. I wonder if, as sin abounds and Satan's freezing reign becomes more apparent, Christ's warmth will be more keenly felt by those who seek it. As our culture systematically destroys gender, re-writes sexuality, swaps our heavenly Creator for a blind, cruel force, and even darkly whispers about prosecuting faithful churches, a helpful contrast will arise between the children of light and darkness. 

The cold brings its benefits.