For most of human history, most of humanity lived just a stone's throw away from physical death. Until well into the 19th Century, people had to trust one another and forge strong social bonds to survive.
What makes humans the apex predator on this planet? Our cognitive abilities and ability to make weapons, sure. Our ability to harness and produce fire, yes. But I'll give you a spear and a wooden torch and have you face off against a hungry grizzly bear. What do you think are your chances there?
Pretty damn poor chances. You're smaller, slower, weaker. Your spear will have a tough time getting through the bear's hide whether you decide to throw it at the bear or wait til the bear gets within hand-to-hand distance. More accurately, mauling distance. Either way, you're going to just lightly wound and anger the bear. Now it's hungry and angry.
Hangry is an unpleasant state of mind for other humans around you. It's lethal with something like a grizzy bear.
What makes humans the apex predator is not intellectual crunching power, foresight & planning, fire, or weapons.
It's our ability to work together. To teach one another, to plan together, to encourage one another, to collaborate together.
What did God say when he stood on the plains of Shinar to look upon the Tower of Babel under construction?
And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."
Connection with other people was necessary to physically survive, not only against natural threats but also the two-legged threats.
Yet in the modern world you can survive very well without strong connections with any other human beings. You can get the essentials for physical survival from Amazon or Wal-Mart or the neighborhood pharmacy, all without meaningful interaction with another human being. You can also make the money to pay for these necessities without meaningful interaction beyond mere transactional exchange of information.
But surviving is not thriving.
According to recent survey, 73% of Americans under 30 believe people "just look out for themselves" most of the time, compared with 48% of Americans over 65. 60% of Americans under 30 believe most people "can't be trusted" vs 29% for Americans over 65.
A study from Pew reports "most young adults in the U.S. see others as selfish, exploitative, and untrustworthy." A 2019 survey from YouGov found 1 in 5 millennials report having zero real friends.
We are failing to thrive on a massive scale, and we are failing worse over time.
Proverbs tells us iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. While the knife sharpener in me cringes at the thought of using iron to sharpen my knives, the point remains the same: hard materials sharpen other hard materials. One good man sharpens another good man.
While the modern world has given us great freedoms, in this case the freedom to not depend on anyone else, the way we use these freedoms steers us toward good or ill, blessing or curse.
Keeping ourselves independent from others gives us freedom of action and feelings of autonomy. Yet it also deprives us of the sharpening that happens when good men shape one another through the trials and challenges, highlights and trivialities of life.
For most of human history, humans lived but a stone's throw away from physical death. Today we no longer do. But we now live a stone's throw away from mental deprivation, emotional death, and spiritual malnourishment.
Connect with others, particularly other good and godly men. One hard substance sharpens another, and done right, both are better for it.
After all, consider some of your favorite zombie apocalypse stories. Many of them revolve around questions of who to trust, and once trusting them, how to work together to help each other thrive. Your challenge is not to survive against hordes of undead zombies, but to thrive in the midst of a fallen world that neither nourishes you nor desires your ultimate good.
Connect with others, particularly good and godly men.
You need it. And I know you want it.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Yπερνικᾶτε ἐν Χριστῷ. "Let us go be more than conquerors in Christ"