Bring God Back

I have spent the last eight years immersed in some of the darkest realities facing children and families today.

As I researched and wrote Sacred Stewardship: Restoring Moral Clarity in the Digital Age, one question kept surfacing over and over again:

What has happened to us? What happened to our world?

How did we get to a place where children are being sexually abused, exploited, trafficked, groomed, extorted, and exposed to pornography at unprecedented levels?

How did we get to a place where children are struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-harm, addiction, and suicide in record numbers?

How did we get to a place where childhood itself is under attack?

I founded Sacred Stewardship because I believe every one of us has a responsibility to protect children, regardless of  political affiliation,our denomination, or religious beliefs. Protecting the most vulnerable among us is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It is not a Christian issue or a secular issue. It is a moral issue.

We are doing a profoundly poor job of it.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of all this is that many children are not being harmed by strangers. They are being harmed by family members, relatives, trusted adults, authority figures, and people who were supposed to protect them. And now, they are hurting each other.

We have a child sexual abuse crisis.

We have a child exploitation crisis.

We have a trafficking crisis.

We have a pornography crisis.

We have a mental health crisis.

We must address what is truly a spiritual crisis underneath it all.

The more I study these issues, the more convinced I become that we are witnessing the consequences of removing God from the center of family, community, and culture.

The Bible tells us that Satan is the "god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), the "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2), and the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31). God is still sovereign. Always. Satan is not equal to God. Not even close. He is a small "g" god who has influence only because humanity repeatedly chooses to reject the authority of the One True God.

When people live as if there is no God, they will inevitably submit to something else, and that is what we are witnessing right now.

Over the last several decades, we have systematically pushed God further and further out of public life. Prayer was removed from schools. The Bible disappeared from classrooms. The Ten Commandments were treated as offensive rather than foundational. We removed the very moral framework that helped shape generations of Americans and then act surprised when confusion, chaos, and moral relativism filled the vacuum.

How is that working out for us?

How is it working out for our children?

And how is it looking for the next generations?

Today we are facing skyrocketing rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicide, pornography addiction, violence, drug abuse, and exploitation. Children are being sold for sex. Child sexual abuse material is spreading across the internet. Sextortion is claiming lives. Fentanyl is killing young people. School violence continues to rise. We are watching the consequences unfold in real time.

Adding technology to the equation has accelerated harm at mass scale.

We didn't just open the door to destructive influences. We built a superhighway.

We placed internet-connected devices into the hands of children and gave unprecedented access to algorithms, pornography, predators, misinformation, manipulation, comparison, and endless distraction. These influences now travel with our children everywhere they go: in their pockets, bedrooms, schools, and even churches.

And now these kids are addicted to the “devices” themselves!. It's not their fault! These “devices” were designed to be addictive! And the “platforms” (read: anti-social media apps) are designed for maximum engagement.

I keep coming back to Paul's warning in 2 Corinthians:

"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."

The word "devices" has taken on an entirely new meaning in our modern world.

The enemy's schemes have always existed, but technology has amplified them in ways previous generations could never have imagined.

This is why I say that Sacred Stewardship is addressing what we believe is the largest unregulated influence system shaping children today: identity formation in the digital age.

The battle is not simply about technology.

The battle is about formation.

Who is teaching our children who they are?

Who is shaping their values?

Who is defining truth?

Who is discipling them?

Because whether we realize it or not, everyone is being discipled by something.

The deeper issue is that people are searching for identity in places that can never provide it. We are looking for acceptance, security, significance, belonging, and purpose through appearance, achievement, popularity, sexuality, possessions, relationships,politics, and social approval.

None of those things can sustain the weight of our identity.

That is why Sacred Stewardship is ultimately about returning to the One who created us.

When our identity is rooted in Christ, we discover that we are already accepted, already secure, and already significant, not because of what we have done, but because of Whose we are.

This is where freedom is found.

James gives us a simple but powerful instruction:

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Notice that submission comes first.

Not politics.

Not legislation.

Not activism.

Not outrage.

Submission.

And submission requires humility. A little something that our culture has missed the memo on.

We have spent decades pushing God out. Out of schools. Out of communities. Out of families. Out of culture. We have removed Him from places where His truth once guided and protected us, particularly in the lives of children.

What if the answer is not found in bringing something new into our culture?

What if the answer is found in bringing something back?

God never left.

We did.

He is waiting for us to return. He is our Heavenly Father and He loves us immensely and misses us. He is waiting to welcome us back with open arms just like the prodigal son was received by his earthly father.

The mission of Sacred Stewardship is not simply to expose what is harmful. It is to help families, churches, schools, and communities RETURN to truth, REALIGN with God's design, and RECLAIM their God-given responsibility to shape the next generation.

If we truly want to protect our children, we must do more than fight against darkness. We must build an army of light.

We must bring God back.

We must do it now. The children are counting on us.