People are milling about today with no direction or meaning in their lives. They’re born, go to school, graduate and go to work, retire and die but they never grow up in a spiritual sense. Anomie is the classical sociological term to describe this social condition.
Anomie isn’t solely (or primarily) as sociological problem. It is a spiritual problem. Jesus saw it operating in the people around Him; “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:35,36) Anomie isn’t just a breakdown in social relations brought about by changes in how people organize themselves in new productive units.
Loss of meaning comes along with a loss of identity. When a person’s deep spiritual connection to God withers or fails to be nurtured, a loss of meaning in life occurs. Anomie and spiritual atrophy are both symptoms of this societal pathology. The ancient Israelites were inoculated against this social disease by following the great command; “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ‘These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.'” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7) They failed to take their generational booster shots by passing this love on to their children with each succeeding generation and so ended up where Jesus saw them – ‘weary and scattered.’
Our society has done the same and so we are ‘weary and scattered.’
The good news is – Jesus came and His Gospel lights the way back to health.
Steps Down The Road 