In 1939, the United Kingdom government produced almost 2.5 million posters with the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry on” printed on them. They were preparing for the outbreak of World War 2 and the widely predicted mass air strikes that were predicted to drop bombs and poisonous gas on cities. If those attacks happened, the plan was to raise morale of the people by posting up the posters.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if Shelbyville was hit with a bomb or poisonous gas, seeing this poster hanging up on the electric pole by the fairgrounds wouldn’t help much!
Keep calm, now carry on? Yeah right.
The posters were never used in their intended manner, and most were eventually repurposed. But a copy was found in 2000, posted in a bookshop, and it’s become quite a popular meme and story over the last couple decades.
The world expects us to be stoic and strong. To pretend like we can handle everything that comes our way.
We love the idea of being strong! We want to be! And that desire makes dealing with struggle and sin that much more difficult. Behind the facade of our strong lives is the reality of LIFE - the reality that a poster isn’t going to fix the damage of a bomb.
Deep down we know that on our own we have no ability to keep calm and carry on.
But the good news is we are kept calm in Christ so that we can carry on living the life he calls us to.
Join us on an adventure through Paul's letter to the Thessalonians as we rediscover the truth that Jesus is faithful to finish his work in us and in the world. The series starts Sunday, August 11, at 10 am.
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