My oldest child is 18. That means many things for our family – it means we have three voters in our home. It means we are on the verge of college admission, and it means that we will likely have four people under one roof instead of five very soon.

And for him? Well, 18 years doesn’t seem like such a long time until you consider everything that’s happened in that time. When he was born in 2004, there was not yet an iPhone. A gallon of gas hit a record high of $2.04. Most restaurants still had smoking sections. And Blockbuster was just starting to close locations.

The world has changed much in the last 18 or so years, and one of the things that has changed the most is change itself. The velocity of change, driven by technology, seems to have steadily increased during his lifetime. Today we are having discussions that 18 years ago seemed like the still distant science future. We talk about electric cars, self-learning algorithms, and space travel not in terms of “if” but “when.” It seems increasingly that due to scientific advancement, we are capable of just about anything.

Of course, there is the danger that comes along with that – there is an ever present danger when the answer to “can we” is so often “yes” that we stop asking the question, “should we?” And that question of “should we?” is increasingly absent in our culture.

But in the midst of all the things that we “can” do, in an age of seemingly limitless possibility, there is one thing we seem absolutely incapable of:

Moderation.

It seems as though in the midst of continually pushing the limits of everything imaginable, we have lost the ability to moderate. Everything – everything – is taken to the extreme, and we see that extremity all around us.

We see it in our food choices in that it seems like everything is bad for us, or nothing is really bad for us.

We see it in our conversations with each other in that everything is the best and is worthy of unquestioning allegiance, or everything is the absolute worst and should only be treated with outright contempt.

We see it in our media usage in that we glut ourselves over and over on this device or that show and are unable to hold back from the binge.

Moderation is gone, and we are worse for it, because one of the reasons why we can moderate anything is because we are thoughtful people. Ironically, then, all of our advancement has made us less considering. Less pondering. Less thoughtful. Our lack of moderation is symptomatic of our general shallowness. And the Bible has something to say about that, and it does so in the description of a certain group of people: the Bereans:

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11).

This short description of the Berean Jews comes just after the account of the people in Thessalonica who, when they heard the preaching of Paul and his companions, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. This wasn’t because Paul was incendiary in his language; in fact, it seems he was quite the opposite. With the Thessalonians, Paul “reasoned” and explained” (v. 2, 3). He didn’t shout and argue or taunt or enflame – he spoke. And yet they responded with violence. One might say they responded with extremity.

But the Bereans were different. They were eager, but not eager to the extreme; rather, their eagerness propelled them to greater consideration and thoughtfulness until they did indeed come to believe in the truth of the message. There was a sense of moderation in their response.

And though there are moments when extremity is required, surely it should not be our overall posture. So where are the Bereans of today? Where are those who might initially react with either excitement or trepidation, and yet not be so ruled by that emotion that they lose all sense of logic and reason? Where are those who will think, consider, and contemplate? We are in desperate need of them today.

And in our own extremity how do we regain a sense of moderation? Surely it’s only through the one thing that can go to war against the anxiety, the fear, the pride, and the bitterness that fuels all that extremity – surely it can only come through the relative peace that comes from knowing Jesus. It can come from the peace in knowing that our future is secure in Him and we have nothing left to prove because Jesus has proven it all at the cross.