California, the most populous state in America with 40 million people, is in the fourth year of a record-breaking drought with nearly half of the state showing extreme to exceptional drought conditions (U.S Drought Monitor, November 10, 2015).

The spread of terrorism and recent attacks in France, the daily stabbings in Israel and the turmoil, suffering and death in the world, even religious leaders are questioning their faith.

The dominant crisis now on the world scene is the massive influx of refugees crushing in on the borders of Eastern European nations. Tens of thousands of oppressed peoples from the Middle East and Northern Africa are clamoring to get into these countries. Most want to get to the European Union, which has accepted over half a million migrants and is now balking at accepting more. This intense pressure, financially and culturally, may reveal cracks in the fabric of the E.U. as member nations try to absorb the massive influx of poor, desperate people.

Did you ever sit and watch ants scurrying about? They are tiny creatures and most of us regard them as nothing but pests. We certainly do not invite them to our picnics or into our homes. Did these tiny insects evolve, or were they created by a brilliant Designer?

I still remember once seeing a cartoon that summed up an interesting trend in Western society. It showed four children playing on a park bench with their tablets and devices, with a desolate playground in the background. The caption read, “children playing.” This satire illustrates a stark and troubling phenomenon. In our desire to virtually connect through technology, it seems as we are going offline to reality.

An October 16, 2015 The Week magazine article titled, “Smartphones: Changing us for the worse?” describes this phenomenon: