A Contrary Thought...

The world around us is full of contention. Arguments abound and lines are drawn daily in an effort to create boundaries between mine, yours, ours and theirs. Legal arguments regarding these things along with rights, liability and ownership are primary occupations of our society. But this morning, I'm struck by a thought, a saddening thought on one hand, but one that also gives reason for great joy on the other. From the beginning of time our God has been teaching us how to live. He's known from before our creation what men needed to know to live in harmony and peace. The preponderance of His word is His wisdom in dealing with these very things.

The life cry of men obsessed by the thinking of this world is to be first, have the most and to be the best. My sadness due this thought is the recognition of the fact that if all men were given to live by the wisdom of our creator, we'd have little reason if any, for the voracious contention that consumes the society we live in. That if only all men recognized the truth of our creators' instruction and lived by it, we'd have no argument with one another and the righteousness of our Lord would rule our existence to allow us to live peacefully with one another. But unfortunately, the insolence and disobedience of men breeds a world in constant violence and turmoil that for now, we're forced to live in the middle of.

However as we know, our salvation gives us knowledge of the fact that we're destined to live a life everlasting beyond this moment, to live in Gods' presence with those who choose to submit to His wisdom and be ruled by His heart. Of course, this thought is our joy and also strength to our endurance to bear this life for now, recognizing that this is only a temporal moment in eternity.

But my thoughts this morning go beyond these things to recognize that we are given to obtain a different perspective entirely than the darkness the world around us chooses to accept. Instead of allowing ourselves to be primarily motivated in this life by asserting our rights, we recognize that we don't even own our own lives. We are now slaves, purchased by the blood and sacrifice of our God who came to live among us to die and bear our shame and punishment. So this being true of us, we live striving to bear witness first to the rights of our God in all things and to consider our selves secondarily if at all. This because we recognize the deity, omniscience and omnipotence of our God and the fact that our lives were not only given by Him, but then again purchased by Him.

So now, we instead strive together to recognize that there's nothing that we could claim as our own that doesn't actually belong to Him by His by creation. Even what we struggle to build is done using materials He provided. So then what can we claim to own but what He has given for our use? If we are consumed with greed or the will to posses, is it because we fear that He lacks the ability to further create or doubt His generosity toward us? The thinking of the world is so small and so limited in comparison to the truth of our God. How He must be repulsed by the self centered perspective of the world, knowing all the while that He in fact owns it all in spite of our assertions.

I know for myself that I have not yet perfected this perspective in my own life. But it has become an earnest mission of unlearning thoughts and wisdom of the world around me in an effort to gain the uncontaminated view of the truth and the wisdom of my God, who owns my life.