We live in a day of fear: fear of singleness, fear of disease. Fear of terrorism, fear of debt. The often extreme juxtapositions of our fears are difficult to comprehend. In one moment the news story is on pesticides or vaccinations; in the next moment, extremist terrorist groups beheading individuals in foreign nations. Scrolling our social media feeds, we are likely hit with these disparate issues that sadly highlight our culture's misled pursuits. How much time have we spent debating yoga pants, what foods are safe to eat, and how we can increase our wealth or decrease our debt? How often do we jump from one diet to the next, one dating site to the next, one "how to" book to the next?
There are things we cannot prevent, cannot avoid: disaster strikes, disease arrives, death comes. Rich or poor, we all are born, and we all die. The choice we have is who we will live for: ourselves, the enemy, the cause of Christ? We make this choice everyday.
We sit in our coffee shops and set our agendas. We have the luxury of deciding how we will live: we structure our days around the fears we choose to harbor and the desires we choose to pursue. Today, I ask you, as you drink your coffee or plan your week, choose sides with purpose. Let us measure each worry, each fear, each want or obsession, next to the cause of Christ. We must live in light of eternity. Today, let us choose sides.
What is the enemy here?
Is it war in other places, distant fights and foreign faces?
Is it when, our hearts deceived, we spend our days in fruitless deeds?
Why is the enemy here?
Does he try to help us laugh, doing good on our behalf?
Or does he come to steal our lives, filling us with fruitless strife?
Where is the enemy here?
Is he in a vaccination, conspiracies in our own nation?
Or is he in the books we read; the shows we watch; the things we see?
Who is the enemy here?
Is it one man seeking power, who for his gain will fast devour?
Or is it in our own obsessions for an increase in possessions?
What is our purpose here?
Is it food or weight or wealth, or is it found in better health?
Is it instead in lifting high, not ourselves, but Jesus Christ?
Why are we living here?
Will they see hypocrisy, empty words and religiosity?
Or will they see obedient faith, living out the Father’s way?
Where are we going here?
Have we lost our moral compass, blinded to the sins before us?
Have we lost all sense of time that now we live our lives online?
Who are we chasing here?
Do we all seek easy lives, calling comfort sacrifice?
Or do we live eternally, chasing Him we cannot see?
"For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:17-18