Photo credit to Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.
So often I’m filled with frustration at the people living around me.
And to be honest, it doesn’t have as much to do with the flagrant, worldly sinners as the lukewarm, half-hearted Christians.
LGBTQ+ banners and violent liberal signs don’t rile me up. But the petty and wasteful declarations from the Christians in my life do.
Sometimes I look around at the people worshiping God alongside me and I’m filled with what I hope and pray is a righteous anger. A lot of them don’t even smile. Some of them look bored. Some of them look like they’d rather be anywhere else. Some of them aren’t even pretending to try.
These people who have been called to live are dead.
I feel like I'm surrounded by people who rightly fit the old term "the living dead".
My dear, wonderful friends, you were called to be alive. To laugh. To smile. To be untouched by the world. To be whole and healed. To be overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control!
You were called to an exquisite existence as a beloved child of God, redeemed, forgiven, adored by the wonderful Abba, your Heavenly Father. He has offered you an eternal paradise filled with things beyond your wildest dreams. He has given you His life through His death. He has given you His love.
So why is it that all you care about is posting pics of your lavish trips? Of playing video games? Of building your social media following? Of hanging out with friends?
I’m guilty of this too. I’m forever forgetting the most important things and becoming wrapped up in the worthless things of this mortal life.
But here’s the thing, and I say this to the Christians in the room, not the unbelievers:
We should all know better.
We look no different than the sinful world around us. We take every easy, comfortable avenue. We lend our voices to the worthless internet noise screaming for this weapon of Satan called “Tolerance”.
The world around us doesn’t know better.
But we should.
God calls you to be all in with Him, not with one foot in, one foot out.
You weren’t meant to traipse through the shallows. You were meant to be swallowed by the sea.
If you aren’t all in, then you’ll lose yourself altogether.
Christ says that it’s impossible to follow Him and love the world. Unless you take up your cross and follow him, forsaking your possessions, your family, your dreams, yourself, you can’t be his disciple.
Throw yourself into the waves of Christ’s Life and let yourself be carried away.
Nothing else matters.