So often in recent years I can feel overwhelmed by the level of depravity around me.  When everything I deem right is considered wrong by others and there seems to be no moral absolutes.  I often get on the treadmill at the gym and I cringe at things I see on the morning news shows or I open a magazine at a doctor's office and feel frustrated by the things that people are not only accepting, but even applauding.  It seems that materialism and greed should have no boundaries and that life should revolve around whatever makes us happy.  Except people in our culture today NEVER are happy - at least not for long. 
But recently our small group has began studying the book of Ecclesiastes.  This book is written to those who have gained the whole world, but have lost their souls in the process - to our culture today.  I often hear from older people how things are so much worse today than they were years ago, but then I look at what it was like in the days of the Old Testament and realize that God's word is true when it says  "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."  I am encouraged by the fact that God is not surprised by what is going on in our world today.  He doesn't look at something that has happened and say, "Well, I wish I would have seen that coming!"  We have a choices to make and every choice counts.  We have events occur in our lives that are beyond our control, but we can control our response to them.
 When I feel uncertain about what God is doing, in my life or the lives of those around me, I often think of this Steven Curtis Chapman song.

God is God

And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most,
"I just don’t know" 

And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God 

And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Til the only burning question that remains
Is "Who am I"
Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass
Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through
Him and from Him are all things
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone