Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Losing Affection for the World

I'm always very reflective on Wednesday nights after youth group. Wondering if I said things right, wondering if they heard right, wondering how many even cared to hear right. It's frustrating and freeing all at the same time to see it going on around me. So many people who have the attitude of "whatever." So self-consumed. No other world but their own. Granted, maybe I'm being a little unrealistic to think that an 11 year old would find interest in searching the deeper things of scripture, but sometimes I just feel like virtually no one GETS IT. Do you know what I mean? They just don't get it. Example:

When I'm singing worship songs to God I am constantly thinking on WHAT I am saying. The "feelings" (that so many criticize) come from the power of truth. Truths like the supremacy of Christ, the cross, the glory of God, etc. It's in those moments (and I'm in one right now as I type and think), that I wonder how anyone (even myself) can live any other way. Where is there life except in Jesus? Where is there truth except in Him?

Then I look at all those around me chasing after the vices and habits of this world. It almost sickens me. To love the flesh and the fleshly. To be trapped in a web and loving it all the while. How can we find such pleasure in selfishness and ignorance?

And so I've truly realized (beyond mental comprehension) that true FREEDOM is only found in losing affection for the world. I don't want to be in love with this world any more. It is a false hope. It is a never ending cycle of desire that must be sacrificed on the cross.

God... help us see past this world to a new Kingdom, where you reign, and justice, love, and mercy flow as streams of life.

Amen