Day 2634 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
What is left here that hasn't been seen? What is there that man hasn't known or held or found? And yet we still have this idea that we can find a place, obtain some thing, discover a new form of happiness and peace and life in this place. I reckon it's easy to fall into the assumption that these lives in this world are all there is because they've all we've known. But as for me, limiting life to what already is seems about as exciting as cold oatmeal.
I don't know, I just like to think outside of the box. I like to wonder. I like to imagine the impossible because often times the possible simply isn't working. I personally can't imagine living a life where this is all there is. But sadly, that's exactly what the majority apparently believe. They're all busy building these lives based on the assumption that these temporary existences are all that matter and that they may as well make them as grand and glorious as they possibly can.
But again, what do they do that hasn't already been done? Living life according to the ways and offerings of this world may seem limitless, but the fact is that doing so requires repetition. Assuming that these lives here are all we have leads us to combing through the options and opportunities that we can find down here, and so we look to what other people are doing or have done in the search for something that we'd like to copy. Again, there is nothing new under the sun, only a duplicate of the different shadows of life that other people have discovered and settled in.
Not sure when it started happening, but it's been unraveling for a few years now. At some point I realized that this world was losing its grip on me. I didn't fit in and I was losing the desire to do so. All the desires that seemingly everyone else shared just didn't have that same appeal to me. All the titles and jobs and collections and possessions and dream vacations just never seemed to offer any sense of real accomplishment or lasting meaning. Or maybe it's just because I'm one of those radical weirdos who refuse to do what's normal.
Either way, I can't bring myself to settling for what this world has to offer. There’s this unshakable feeling deep down that there is something more, something different, something that no eye has seen. And to me, that's the exciting stuff. Not some lavish dream designed around my desires. Not some fancy lifestyle filled with everything that causes others to envy my existence. But this hope that there's more than this because there just has to be. There has to be more because Christ promised that very thing. And I don't want to live my life in a way that causes me to forget or ignore or overlook that promise of something greater.
Friends, I know that what is seen has all sorts of luster and shine. This place is filled with things that millions want to have and it's very easy to get lost in that chase to get them. But it's all chasing a ghost. It's all running after the wind hoping to grab hold of it so that you can swell with pride and show the world that you've caught something that so many others have tried to find. But the downside of what is seen is that it can fade. It can be lost. It can fall from style and lose its appeal. But we can't lose something that we've not yet seen because it lives in our hearts where nothing can take it away.
That's what I want. That's what all of us should want. Something that can't be stolen or lost or broken or tarnished. Something that isn't limited to just those who know where to look or have enough money and resources to obtain it. But something that is personal, something that is too big to hold in your hand, something that this world simply can't offer because it isn't here. That's what we have in Christ. An eternal hope. A lasting promise. A forever home. A chance to break beyond the normal and the known and put our faith in something that can't be seen yet can't be lost.
Don't settle for something that passes. Don't trade the impossible for the possible. Don't accept the normal just because it's easier and makes more sense and brings with it the chance to boast in worldly gain and relish in social envy. There's more than all that, far more. There may be a whole lot of things that have been seen and won and purchased and experienced in this world. But there are still limits. What is unseen however, well, there's just no way to limit what we don't yet know. And for me at least, that's as exciting as it gets.
And something that exciting will always be worth more than whatever the rest of the world is trying to discover down here. After all, when we open our eyes we know what we’ll see. But when we close our eyes and open our hearts to Christ, the possibilities are truly limitless. And that’s because we don’t have the foggiest clue as to what He’s leading us toward. Just a promise that it’s worth the wait and the faith that it takes to get us there.
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