Pastor Steven Thomas was born in Houston,
Texas. He graduated from New Mexico Tech with a BS in Chemistry. He was working
as a chemist in Baltimore for a few years, and then decided to pursue the dream
of being a pastor. In 1993, Pastor Steve graduated from the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Gettysburg.
Pastor
Steve enjoys hiking, kayaking, and reading. Pastor Steve’s passion is always
looking for greater understanding - especially in how our expanding scientific
knowledge reveals additional wonders of God.
Some
of his favorite books are The Bible (of course), Awareness by
Anthony DeMello, One Minute Nonsense by Anthony DeMello, The
Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, E=mc2 by David Bodanis,
and the Tolkein trilogy.
Over these past several years, the public
mood in our society has really become pessimistic.The news from every news source focuses on
all of the negative events in our world.And now, with constant TV and internet coverage, every negative event
throughout the world can be broadcast and shared and commented on over and over
forever.
And yet, when you look at
many of the larger trends over the course of the last century or two, you can
actually see a very positive progression.The author, Steven Pinker in his book, Enlightenment Now makes a
pretty good case that we are living in amazing times.And there is a good possibility that the
future will be even brighter.
You can see this in areas
like the massive increase in our life span over just the course of this past
century.Prior to 1880, the average life
span was about 35 years old - and had been that way for centuries.In 1900, the American life span was 40 years
old.Of course, those statistics
includes many children and mothers who died in childbirth.Today the average American life span is 75
years old.That is almost doubled in
just over one century.
A couple of the reasons that
this has increased so greatly is because we understand about germs.We have created clean drinking water for
everyone in our society.We have
vaccinations for some of the worst diseases throughout human history.Horrible diseases like the black plague,
yellow fever, smallpox, and the measles are gone.Polio is on the edge of being completely
eliminated from humanity.
When Jonas Salk invented the
polio vaccine in 1955, New York City wanted to throw him a ticker tape parade
throughout the city.Today, we seem to
have completely forgotten the catastrophic toll that these everyday diseases
used to take on people.
In 1900, about 20% of
children died before they were 5 years old (statistics from Sweden).That is one out of every five children.Now it is close to zero.
The percentage of people
with a basic education throughout the world has gone from about 30% in 1900 to
about 80% today.
Our daily lives have
improved dramatically due to running water, electricity and helpful household
machines like the refrigerator, the washing machine, stove, microwave, vacuum
cleaner, and dishwasher.Housework has
gone from about 60 hours per week in 1900 to about 19 hours per week today.
Pinker estimates that
poverty has decreased from 30% in 1960 to about 10% today.
The work week is shorter
than it used to be.And people are far
more likely to be able to retire than they used to be.In 1900, 75% of men over 65 were still in the
work force.Today, only about 22% of men
over 65 were still in the work force.
Active wars in the world
have decreased dramatically throughout the past century.
These various statistics and
positive measures of our quality of life do not erase the challenges that face
the world.But, even as we try to deal
with today’s problems, we would do well to keep in mind the many many blessings
that we live with every day - even without knowing it.In this way, we may live with just a little
less pessimism about the hopelessness that the news and end-of-the-world movies
continue to saturate us with.
And, in addition, God has
the power to guide us through dealing with the problems that we face.You never know what amazing force or
technology that God will enable humanity to harness.God has certainly brought humanity through
some amazing challenges.
And finally, in our
transcendent hope and faith, we say to our Lord, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus”.