Don’t leave me out of the argument—I want to play the game too!

Are you ready for a new world? Some hard changes are coming and our lives will change.

Brace yourself.

Have you noticed how modern “wars” happen? We have seen recent violence in places like the Middle East and Ukraine and Russia and I’m glad that I was not there. Many people have died or been seriously injured. If you follow the violence, it comes and goes quickly, but then the war of words follows and grows.

Recently, at a university I know, there was a pro-Palestinian demonstration involving many people who were holding up signs and shouting. Police and security cleared the area but didn’t arrest anyone.

Nothing resembling physical violence happened, but there was a serious battle of words. People shouted, some screamed, and, of course there were protest signs.

If you follow the news in Europe, especially in France, the words and signs have easily escalated into violence, with cars and buildings burning. Then, the protests quickly slip back into a war on words.

I have friends and relatives who follow what is happening, and they have different ideas about why these protest events, these wars of words, are taking place. They don’t seem to really know the causes for these verbal wars.

I’m old enough to remember something like this when I much younger. Remember the hippies? I was young when they were getting older, and they are impossible to forget. There was a time when the radicals who liked to argue and demonstrate had one topic: Vietnam. The war in Vietnam was getting old, but it was still going, and I think soldiers were still being drafted. That was the beginning of many angry arguments with the professional protesters. That’s how old I am.

At my school they had long hair, like the hippies, and they wore army surplus boots and jackets. We all tried to stay out of arguments with them. They were ready to launch a verbal assault any time. When we had school assemblies for any reason, they expressed their opinions, with loud shouts and cheers.

We were told that they also demonstrated, on weekends and after school against the politicians and the police, outside of the school campuses.

When I started high school, there was a student club with a strange name: the “Human Survival Club.” I went to a few meetings. It was obvious that some school teachers were forming a group of argumentative radicals who could demonstrate in the streets and possibly even escalate their arguments to the level of a riot.

I dropped out early, but they made me think, and my life changed soon afterward. Those professional protesters were recruited and trained, and coached.

Those people didn’t form their groups and act the way they did by coincidence. Someone led and coached them. Now, I hear news about loud and violent protests in many parts of the world, including France. I can’t see the coaching and organising meetings taking place behind the scenes. Those parts of the organizations are not on the news cameras, but I remember the meetings from when I was young.

Huge social movements don’t just happen, even when people are frustrated. They are organized and coached.

I remember those times, and something important happened to me. I did not continue with my “Human Survival” schoolmates, but they showed me that it was good to have a friend group. So, I searched my school and found a small club that met once a week at lunchtime, That group had an odd name “STATIC.” I went to a few meetings and I decided that was a good place for me.

I still remember the name of my new group, and I remember that it was an acronym: “Students And Teachers In Christ.” Someone formed a small Christian or “Jesus People” club, and I joined it.

Our leader was a math teacher in our school, and I learned that he was also a pastor in a small church in a town outside our city. My schoolmate friends in STATIC were from many religious backgrounds. Some had no religion in their families, but we learned a simple lesson about following Jesus.

I could say more, but now, when I hear the news, from France and other places in the world, I am sure that huge social movements have coaches and missionaries, behind the scenes.

I am also sure that there are modern STATIC clubs and movements, but they don’t are not mentioned in the news.

An old cycle is repeating.

JJesus gave us these simple words: “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:26).

And here is some news from France that you might have missed: