My Line of Despair

I have been reading through Francis Schaeffer's Trilogy for the first time the past month or so. Unlike most books, I find that I can't read it quickly. I read a few pages or chapters slowly and deliberately, and then I have to put it down and attempt to digest the content therein.

To be honest, his line of despair has been causing me to despair. The basic ideology of "modern modern man" disturbs me, not because I think it is bad philosophy, but because it leads to death. The question that continually hangs over my head as I read Schaeffer is how do I reach these people? They know they are dead; they don't know that they were once alive. They have abandoned the idea of objective meaning, and the only way they can regain it is to give up their autonomy, which their pride demands they keep at all costs. The task before me seems unsurmountable.

This is how I was feeling when I came across this section of Leviticus 26 two days ago:

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out…you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you...Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

There are many other sections of scripture that say essentially the same thing, but this one caught my eye. Perhaps it is because it wasn't familiar to me. The emboldened text is what really stuck in my mind. Five people defeating 100 in battle? 100 defeating 10,000? If you want unsurmountable odds, here it is. But if I am faithful to God, He will walk with me. He is the God who surmounts the unsurmountable. Maybe there is hope for "modern modern man" and for me.