Have you noticed that nobody seems to be happy about where things are headed these days?

Gas prices make us shake our heads. The cost of our groceries is making us think twice about what we buy. The “culture war” over guns, abortion and climate change seems to be more pitched than ever.  

A New York Times poll tells the tale: 77 percent of all people from all walks of life think America is on the wrong track. Everybody seems dissatisfied.

This could be really depressing. But what if this is an opportunity? Well, of course it’s an opportunity, because God doesn’t waste anything.

Pascal, who lived in the 1600s, rightly diagnosed the problem then and the problem now: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man,” he said, “which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”

What if all this discontentment about the direction we’re moving in could actually be God’s way of showing us all that we can’t have hope except through Him. The Psalmist says it when he wrote, “Do not put your trust in princes (or in presidents or leaders or the state of the world or your nation), in mortals, in whom there is no help.”

If any of us is going to turn to Jesus, then we have to sense our need for Him, don’t we? To put it in terms of what Jesus calls Himself in John, how is anyone going to come to “the Bread of Life” if they don’t feel a hunger for something more than what this wrong-headed world has to offer?

If more than three-quarters of our fellow Americans feel like we are on the wrong track, what do we, followers of Jesus, have to offer?

Everything! Think of what Jesus says in John: “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

As Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” 

Don’t think the way of this world or nation is where it should be? Good! Because that’s a great starting point to see Jesus’ better way. 

Don’t think there’s any truth to be found in the competing views playing out on social media? Good! That’s a starting point to look to Jesus, who offers lasting truth. 

Don’t think there’s much joy in life right now because of all the challenges? Good! That means you can look to Jesus — He offers a life, not without challenges or pain, but a life of meaning and purpose in the midst of it. And a life that He says will last forever, unlike the life we see in this world. 

Esther asked if she was born for such a time as this. We could ask the same, and the answer unmistakable: of course you are! 

Seven out of every 10 people you meet this week say we’re on the wrong track. What an opportunity!

We’ve seen the light. We have it. We need to share it.