Day 3042 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 15:19 NIV

What if I told you that billions of people all around the world were desperately looking for something they've already been offered?

You've heard it said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. But I contend that there's another scenario which displays a mind clearly going insane, and that is to continue looking for something that has already been found. Because it takes a mind entirely disheveled to reach the point where you're able to miss that which is right in front of you.

Yet as we speak, the search goes on. People are so frenzied and frantic trying to find a way to belong. Folks seem to need this sense of camaraderie as they've accepted that their true identity is only found once they're found as being of some worth in the eyes of their peers. Everyone wants a place to fit, a group in which to feel at home, a bolstering of their inability to find worth within themselves.

And "a mob is the place where people go to take a break from their conscience."

Nobody can go it alone. There's been such fear attached to this idea of being alone, being unseen, being unknown, and mostly, being unaccepted. No one would wish that outcome on their very worst enemy, because in this world, to be cast aside is seen as the utmost failure one can possibly find in life. All because we've been sold this lie that this world is our home and that we must therefore do whatever necessary to attain the comfort needed to exist here amongst an endless divide only deepening the darkness within.

To be an introvert such as myself, you're seen as some sort of mentally deranged escapee who should be returned to the nearest padded room and reunited with their straitjacket from which they apparently managed to wriggle out. For a person to walk on the edge of society no longer seeking the need to fit in as that need has gone from their minds invokes this assumption assumed by everyone else simply that they are just that, out of their minds. Because who would forgo the open arms and warm embrace of world which equally offers rejection and disdain?

It makes no sense to those who still, and will perhaps continue onward seeing this soil as their sanctuary.

It's to that sadness against which we on this side of a new hope contend for those who can somehow someday join the realization that there is so much more to life than this stretch of it. Because what the world sees is seen through eyes blinded by a great many unnecessary distractions which will always only conceive a sense of forlorn disparity within the broken hearts and wandering minds still combing this world for something that cannot be found here.

To belong is something that we need, but what we need first is to understand that we already do.

The issue is that much of humanity is convinced that they must belong here only because they are here. It seems a hopeless assumption of coincidence, this mindset set on the belief that this world is all that can exist because it’s all that any of us can see. The lifestyle seeking to style itself within the molds deemed acceptable and important is a pursuit being undertaken as the hearts caught in such a sick cycle know only what they're eyes are allowed to see. Yes, people only see what they allow themselves to see.

Blindness affects each of us. I'm not talking about those who physically cannot see. The blindness I'm talking about here is a spiritual blindness that has or has had all of us groping around for hope in the dark, unaware that the lights are on. This blindness is a symptom of a human arrogance that has achieved the ability to be handed a map to freedom only to keep finding enslavement. This blindness is a result of sin owning us in ways we can't admit.

But what I hope that everyone can someday understand is that if we can find the humility to look past our fallen humanity, there we will find the welcome we've never been able to locate down here. Because it isn't down here. We only look down here because our sins have convinced us that there's nothing we need beyond that which we crave. And all that we crave is only craved as the world has taught that once we achieve this that and the other, we'll have all the stamps needed to receive our reward.

And wouldn’t you know it, all that we need to fit in here is apparently found here. Strange, that.

What boggles the mind is that so many people are so incredibly willing to keep bending over backwards in order to please and appease a populace that is in no way different, better, higher, lower, richer, poorer than they are themselves. Each and every one of us is a broken scoundrel who should not have the hope that there is hope. All of us have lived a kind of life that deserves nothing but the dank darkness of a hopeless outlook that cannot possibly end.

But it’s the end of that dank hopeless pit of time wasted trying to belong where we never did that Christ pierced when He tore the veil we’d hung around our hearts as we tried to spruce ourselves up a bit to look prettier to this society of such high external standards. He came to break down our ivory towers only erected to inspire just enough jealousy to encourage a fallen world to agree that we were welcome to stay. And as He did, well, everything changed forever for those who embrace the death of all they once were, looked for, felt they needed.

And yet still, for many the search continues.

So what is everyone looking for in this search to belong? Friendship? Approval? Validation? Justification that one is truly alive? Proof that what you've done isn't really the disqualifier you know it to be? Evidence that you're not too far gone to be welcomed somewhere? Hope that who you really are can really be hidden well enough that nobody can see so that it doesn't undermine your entire existence?

Well, again, what if I told you that billions of people all around the world were desperately looking for something they've already been offered?

You want evidence that you're not too far gone to be welcomed somewhere? How about a chorus of angels rejoicing over every sinner who turns from their foolishness? You want validation that you're alive? How about a heart that still beats inside reminding you that you're not done? You want proof that your past hasn't entirely disqualified you from hope? How about a cross carried by an innocent Man who took your place while you drove the nails?

You want friendship? How about this Christ who gave His life that you might die to all that's kept you apart from His love?

We're looking for things that we've already been given. But all we know to do is look in all the wrong places because it's only all the wrong places that we can allow ourselves to see. When will we rip the blinders off our hearts and open them up to this idea of a merciful love that's long seemed far too good to be true? When will we finally understand that His love is far too good to not be true?

The status quo of life in this fallen world will sadly continue onward in perpetuity until the clouds, like the veil, are torn apart and people are finally forced to look up as they see a gift they never could imagine coming right at them. That day will surprise all of us, albeit in very different ways. For many, it will come like a thief in the night and steal away all that they've been trying to build for themselves. For a few, it will come with an indescribable joy in knowing that this race is done and our peace has come.

I don't care what anyone thinks of me or how I live this life. Yeah, I don't fit in. Don't have many friends. Don't have many plans. Don't have many dreams that are left. Don't see that I need them anymore. And while that's a great mystery to many as how someone could care so little about their life in this place, I'm fine with not being understood. Because my hope isn't to be understood, to be accepted, to be welcomed or applauded or find some sense of belonging in a place I don't plan on staying.

No, I simply don't want anyone to find themselves shattered on the ground with nowhere left to run when the One who could have so easily been their Savior returns with them having never accepted that joy, leaving them left holding only fear in the hearts that realize they were wrong with not a moment left to change that.

Friends, wherever you are in your search for something in which to hope, I pray this message brings you the inspiration to look only where that hope is found. Maybe you're a believer and you know where your hope is. Keep focused there as the world dims. Or perhaps you're kind of on the fence about faith. Dare to let go and see what you can find when you're not focused on finding it in the world anymore.

Maybe you're among the many who are convinced that Christ is a figment of imagination, a fairy tale meant to bring fear, a lie told to stifle life's enjoyment. If that's the case, please consider this: Is the enjoyment you're finding truly bringing you joy that's unending? I venture to say it's not, and I wager this because I've played that game only to lose it all. And while rock bottom sucks, it's only when we find that He is the Rock at the bottom that we can finally build a hope we don't have to worry about crumbling.

The fact is that we've been not only offered but promised, literally given all that we've always hoped to find in life. The sticky part is that it's not in this life. It's not in this place. It's found only when this place is no longer allowed to be seen as our home. Please don't seek a place to belong in this place we're all leaving behind. Hope, joy, peace do not have to have an expiration date. But so long as they're tied to this ground, they will.

And simply put, we should all want more than that which cannot last.

Please don't try to belong here, because in order to get there, you're going to have to lose more than you have to give. This world will welcome you, love you, accept you, but only if you refuse to be who He made you. And while being welcomed by this world will make our stay here a bit easier, safer, more comfortable and likely rewarding, it will still end. And if we've only built our hope here, that hope will be left behind with none waiting up ahead.

Don't do that to yourself. Doesn't matter what the world offers you in return for trading away your eternal peace. We don't need this world to give us anything because in Christ we already have all we need. So let them hate you, reject you, mock you. The more those things happen, the more proof we have that we're not home yet. Might not be fun, but it is sure inspiring.

I understand how weird that sounds. But if you could only see what we at this moment can only imagine, you'd finally realize that it's not crazy building hope on the other side of a grave. It's only crazy to confine hope to a life we're leaving pretty soon.

My point is that everything changed when He came with this message that He was leaving to go get our place ready. This place lost our interest. So too did this seemingly inescapable need to please everyone. Because when we look at the cross, read through Scripture, consider the kind of love that could love we who are entirely unlovable, we find that the love of man cannot do for us what Jesus already has. And the hatred of man cannot undo what He’s done.

So in the end, this world has lost its grip on us, and no amount of hatred can encourage us to give up what we found when He found us. And since we know that He came looking for us after we’d wandered off, well, that’s pretty much all the proof we need that we’re loved, known, cared about, welcomed and wanted. And the most amazing thing about it is that we didn’t even have to try to figure out what to do in order to be what He wanted us to be.

We just had to stop letting the world convince us to become something else.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold