Day 2467 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

1 John 2:15 NIV

I'm thankful for this growing divide that I've felt in my heart for quite a while now. It's this realization that this world and the things that it's doing aren't for me. Not only do I not agree with a lot of it, but I completely despise many of the things that are all of the sudden just okay in the eyes of the masses. I know I've discussed this a lot in these posts, but this world is headed in a very dangerous direction and if we don't speak up and share the truth then that means we're only a quiet part of the problem.

It really has been growing and deepening in me for a long time. But the past few months I've found myself driving down the road, sitting in parking lots, walking around my apartment complex and just noticing that I don't really have a place where I fit anymore. The world has chosen the direction it wants to go. And personally, I just can't find it in me to concede and follow it. I just can't see the worth in the things that people are chasing or the point in how they act along the way.

I guess the best way to sum it up is that this world has started losing its grip on me, and I don't think there's any going back. You know, there's this innate fear that we're taught to have when it comes to change. Leaving behind the known, letting go of what we've figured out, and advancing toward a mystery. It brings this sense of fear because of the chance of failing. Maybe we won't find something to replace what we leave behind. Maybe it'll just be a waste of time that only leaves us trying to crawl back to the relative comfort of what we've known before.

But what if we find something that brings us such an excitement and peace that we can't even recall what we enjoyed about the things behind us?

That's what loving the world keeps us from. Sure, it brings us the ease of a life spent following the herd. It takes away all the hard work of going a different direction, against the grain of the majority. It takes far less effort to let others lead the way and tell us what's important and who we should be and what we should agree with. But it all requires that we lose sight of the individuality that God created inside of us. It means letting go of the chance to be different just so we can be comfortable.

To me, and maybe me alone, that just sounds boring, dull, hollow, and meaningless. Why do what everyone else is doing? Why chase the things that so many others want to have hanging on their walls or sitting in their houses? Why spend a life living as if this place was all there is? Why become so enthralled with the world around us that we lose the ability to hear the desires of the God above us calling us to something far bigger? Why give ourselves over to being simply a clone of what the world wants us to be when we were made to stand out and to fight for something better?

Friends, I know this world seems like our home. We're here for a while. In fact, it's the only place we've ever been so far. But this is not all there is. All the material things, all the money, all the fame, all the social adoration and peer approval only matter down here. And while they seem like the things that we need to prioritize ourselves so that we can carve out a life in this place, they're only temporary distractions that pull us away from what we should be focused on.

Loving this world and living like most in it live will only bring us this fleeting sense of belonging. That's because once our time here is through, or our Lord comes back, all of this will be rendered meaningless. It will be left to collect dust. Don't live for a legacy of dust and ashes. We have a chance to be a part of something eternal by sharing the Gospel and pointing others to God rather than the things of this world. Nobody will ever convince me that this place has something to rival that opportunity.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold