One

 . . . the voice of one crying out in the wilderness . . .  

 - From Mark 1

The year 2020 was the Year of the Many. 

We have come to think too highly of "democracy." We have been indoctrinated to believe that a large crowd has more truth than a small assemblage. We think that an angry mob of thousands must be more righteous than a few people having a book discussion. We've been led to believe that numbers make us right - that the many have more wisdom than the few. Therefore, when it comes to making the world a better place, we focus our attention on getting a growing crowd around our ideas, rather than investigating the ideas themselves. 

But, in history, vast mobs of people have their way, for a time. They soon collapse under their own weight. Crowds become random. They get emotional. They get reckless.

Do we ever stop to contemplate, that the most dangerous figures in history were not known for having bad ideas, so much as having almost supernatural power over mobs? 

Yes, there is another side to this coin. While crowds should be trusted very cautiously, like a caged animal, at the same time they may be brought to bear on very good things. When effecting needed social change, there's nothing like getting a large population behind you. 

In the wake of history's high points, there seems always to follow, a long period of quiet: Silent years where we wonder what happened to the Lord? Where are the heroes? Where is the progress?

The crowds may die away. Things reach a sort of plateau. 

But then just before the next big lurch forward, some lone figures emerge in corners of the world. In the years before Christ, there was one man, way out in the wilderness, calling on people to repent. There had been 400 silent years. But now, from out of nowhere . . . there is at least one man of God left on the planet. And he called upon us to prepare. 

Wisdom is not found, after all, in crowds. There is strength in numbers. But there is often foolishness. To find God, it seems, you have to go way out, away from the people. And the few people left around you will be pensive types. They'll be reflective and self-aware. They'll be capable of thinking a thing through, rather than just joining in with a pitched and fevered throng. 

2020 was The Year of the Crowd. Or the Mob. 

May 2021 be The Year of The Lone Woman, or Man, From the Wilderness.