Day 2702 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Proverbs 14:12 NIV

One of our biggest stumbling blocks as humans is that, given enough time, we can convince ourselves that just about anything is right. We seek out these loopholes in life and reality that allow us to continue following our deceitful hearts toward our selfish desires because we just can't let go of this belief that once we get everything we want, we'll find happiness and meaning and peace as well. But deep down we know there's a cost. We know there are consequences. So we start brainstorming ways to work around them so that we can end up at that same selfish result without having to feel like we did anything wrong.

We're really good at this! Humans have been doing it forever. Started with an apple and never looked back. We instinctually want what we're told we can't have. We want to prove people wrong who tell us that something isn't good for us. We want to horde up all sorts of worldly riches in this effort to prove that we matter. We want to prove to ourselves that our selfish goals and dreams really are as fulfilling as we've made them out to be. We want to prove that we're bigger, stronger, smarter, more able, more resilient, more immune, more important, more special, and most of all, above being wrong.

And so we set off seeking to prove all these things by adopting the same mentality as the rest of the world who seem to be seeking the same kind of self-satisfying glory. We toss aside anything and anyone who stands in our way. Disagree with our opinions? Go away! Try to tell us we’re wrong? Knock it off! Tell us we need to repent and stop living wildly? What’s wrong with having fun?! Expect us to live upright and responsibly? Take hike! Point to some old book that talks of things like sin and damnation? Not up in here! Ain’t nobody got no time for that! There’s fun to be had and success to be chased and freedom to be enjoyed.

But still, that tiny little truth is still there, even though buried far below the surface under all those foolish lies and stupid concessions. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know there's good and evil. We know that there are responsibilities and that those responsibilities come with consequences. But, thinking about those things only hinders our progress and success, and when in a competition with the rest of the world to prove who matters most, we just can't have anything slow us down. We must be first. We must have the most. We must live the lives that everyone else will envy.

So we toss aside the rules. We ignore the warning signs. We run right through the caution tape and keep our hearts fixed on whatever it is that we want to obtain or accomplish or experience. And the further we run down that road of selfishness and ignorance, the more we're able to ignore that truth we've tried so hard to bury. The more we focus on self the less we have to consider the dangers of doing so. It just becomes second nature to ignore whatever we need to ignore so we can focus on whatever we feel like focusing on.

And all along the way, we just keep making these little concessions that seem harmless. We gather around us people of similar mindset who will agree with everything we say and do as long as we respond in kind. We only listen or pay attention to things that we agree with or that agree with us so that we don’t have to consider any other perspective. We stop living in this humble state where we’re well aware of the possibility of making mistakes and choose the path of complete ease that requires us to remain oblivious to anything other than what we’ve chosen to see as right and worthy.

No matter what it takes or what we have to ignore, we keep finding ways to convince ourselves that we're doing right. And we definitely don't find any trouble finding help with that pursuit. This world has made a hobby of laughing off ideas like righteousness and repentance. People have spent thousands of years ignoring wisdom and responsibility. Society prefers to just keep filling in their unstable foundation with more lies and more nonsense rather than clearing away all the foolishness and fixing the underlying problems.

That's part of how we've reached this point where so many no longer believe in God's Word. We've heard so many people deny it that those ideas have crept into our minds as well. We've seen people who are clearly running away from righteousness flourish in this place, and so we start to wonder where the harm is in doing the same. We've seen a society continue to drift further and further away from things like truth and morality and rather than endure the hardship of going the other way, we've chosen to simply embrace the downfall and live like the Romans do.

And we just keep convincing ourselves that it's all okay and ignoring anything and anyone that tells us differently. One of our biggest problems is that we hate being told we're doing wrong. After all, we've spent countless hours finding ways to convince ourselves that we're doing right. And we've found countless loopholes and workarounds that have added to that delusion. How dare anything come along and undermine all the careful planning and crafty lies that we've concocted to give ourselves permission to be selfish and wicked?

The problem is that eventually that road of nonsense runs out. That truth that we've spent so long trying to bury and ignore will rise to the surface. The dead end will come suddenly and since we never took the time to slow down and actually consider what we were doing, we'll crash full speed into a reality that's simply more terrifying than we ever imagined. It's the reality that what we convinced ourselves was right, wasn't. The reality that God really wasn't playing around. The reality that responsibility really is unavoidable, and all those years of trying to avoid it simply piled up to this deadly disaster that we suddenly can't run away from or talk ourselves out of.

Friends, I know we think we're good at coming up with ways to do what we want without having to worry about the consequences. The foolishness of humanity knows no limits, and that's a fact that continues to be proven daily. Our way, this picture-perfect painting of life filled with all our dreams and all our desires and absolutely nothing bad or dangerous or negative sure looks nice, and we've spent years working it over to make it look that way. But no matter how hard we try, God's truth will not budge. He will not compromise. No matter how long we may live convinced otherwise, He has the final say in what’s right, and if we live on the wrong side of it, we will get what we deserve.

We’re free to keep on compromising. But we'd be wise to stop because while we're willing to spend our lives looking for loopholes that allow us to cater to self, God's going to close them all one day! And if we’re left on the outside looking in, then we’re going to get to spend the rest of forever considering just how wrong we always were.

There are all sorts of ways that look right to us. Money, fame, worldly success, social approval, peer appreciation, sinful freedom, and the list goes on. They all look wonderful, and our world does everything it can to help us believe they're okay. But in the end, a life lived with no room for God and His way is a life that will lead to an eternity without God and His peace. As fun as it may be to run wild and live without a care in the world, the consequences are still there. And while many will spend the entirety of their lives running from repentance and laughing at God's righteousness, all they'll find in the end is death.

We've been warned. Again, one of the beauties of the Bible is that it's truth. It's reliable. It's unchanging and unyielding. And God gave us those lessons and those bits of wisdom and those stern warnings for a reason. We each have the choice between life and death, blessings and punishment. We're all going to receive one or the other when this trial run is over. Please don't live as if these worldly lives are all there is. Doing so will only bring misery when we reach the end of this road and realize that this road doesn't actually end. The world ends, but when it does, eternity begins. Are you ready for it, or are you running from it?

#LeaveNoSoulUntold