It All Ties Together

Today, I spent a lot of time listening to a crime podcast called Crime Junkies while I was at work. Oh boy, it definitely kept me engaged all day, however, by the the time I reached the end of the day, my heart was heavy. I had just listened to the investigative stories of innocent men and women getting murdered, abused, and tortured for almost a full day of my time, as entertainment! Sin and darkness began creeping into my mind when I walked slowly out to my car; when I started driving home I couldn’t help but break down crying. Compassion filled my soul and my heart was softened towards all the hurt families and loved ones left hurt from the murders. Consequently, I had been praying in the previous days for God to soften my heart. Why? Because, lately, I had been hyper focused on politics and the upcoming primary candidates attempting to compete against Donald Trump in the 2020 elections. With my college community being basically non-existent, because of school coming to an end, I had nothing better to do than to watch continuous political commentaries. My sense of humor had turned more and more cruel as I had decided what I thought was just and unjust. All of this had lead me to an empty yearning for some type of control in life; building a hard heart within me. So, back to the point, God had seen me and answered my prayer. I opened up the bible. I read truth and it connected me to see my circumstances clearly:

“ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

2 Peter 1:3-7

It took a full day of me listening to gut wrenching stories for God to bring me to my knees before Him. I continue to learn that I will never be in control. I will never completely know this evil world in black and white. God is omniscient and I am finite. This is why He was able to send His son to die for me. I never could have been perfect or powerful enough to take the weight of all my sin on my own. The sin that lives in my heart, in all of our hearts, is no different than the evil in those murders. Like it says in 2 Peter,”...by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” One of his promises was to forgive me and therefor I have been set free from corruption. I think murder just reflects the physical aspect of what we are all really capable of, the corruption from sinful desire. We all carry sinful desires and even though it may not be as intense as murder, our sin is what originally caused corruption in this world. I deserved a life sentence, but Jesus made me righteous. He died for me when I deserved it most. My heart is now filled with the hope that my eternity with Christ is secure from the evil in this world.

Love is the only thing God calls me to pursue with my whole heart, not omniscience. That verse in Peter ends with the word love. Love is what holds all other qualities together and keeps this broken world connected to Him. I have been missing the most important ingredient in the past few weeks of meaningless politics. In the film Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton a girl who lost her arm from a shark attack, went to Thailand to help some kids after a Tsunami. As she watched all the kids run out to the ocean for the first time in weeks she said,”Surfing isn't the most important thing in life. Love is. I've had the chance to embrace more people with one arm than I ever could with two.” A girl who had been obsessed with surfing was drawn back to being obsessed with Christ's love for His people. Without losing her arm, Bethany wouldn’t have discovered God’s powerful love in restoring the kid’s passion for the ocean, even after it’s destruction. Sometimes we need to experience hardship and trial to truly understand the power of God’s love for us. I asked Him to give me a soft heart and He did, because He loves me.

#perspective #outlook #newlife