I get it.
It’s 2017.
Our Jesus has more to compete with for our attention in our every day lives now more than ever.
We are constantly distracted, satisfied, and ultimately pacified, to the point to where we are bent out of shape over internet data loading slower than we would like. Companies like Netflix film and release entire seasons of shows now, so not only do we not have to wait to watch episodes: we can binge entire seasons in a 24 hour time span (sometimes in less time than that!!!). God forbid if that snapchat doesn’t load or send by our desired timeline because we have such busy lives that we simply can not imagine WAITING. Much less having patience. And we definitely can not imagine seeking real truth in anything, because it takes too much time.
Over the past few months, I’ve been a busy girl. I’m very fortunate to have many different friend groups, made up of many different people, that live in different places. They all own parts of my heart, in their own way. I would never be who I am without every single one of them. Between weddings, engagements, youth retreats, football games, reunions, and every type of celebration in between, I’ve been on the road more weekends than not since August of this year.
Some people say, “Aren’t you tired?” or “Don’t you ever just want to stay at home?”. My favorite one is “How do you ever expect to get married if you’re never at home” *EYE ROLL CENTRAL ON THAT ONE*. To go off on a side note, I feel the most at home when I’m traveling to see people that I love. I feel complacent and dormant if I stay in one place for too long. There’s nothing wrong with staying in one place, most people do it, but where I’m at in my life, I choose to be moving more times than not. It’s where I’m at in my life, and what is best for me right now.
One of my favorite parts of traveling around all the time, is listening to the similarities and differences in people’s lives. I’ve really been practicing my listening skills over the past year or so, because I’ve learned that you can see so much if you just shut your own mouth and listen sometimes. Listening is one of the most unnatural habits of mine, but I have started training my brain to do so, because I’ve seen so much happen in our country just because people. don’t. listen. It seems like every time I turn my radio on or watch the news we are listening to each other less and less every day. So now, that I’ve seen it happen before my very eyes, to my own brothers and sisters in the church and in secular society alike, over and over and over, I make a conscious effort to shut my own mouth, and listen.
Something that has really been reoccurring lately, in many different situations, has been who and what we can depend on for happiness.
What is it that will satisfy our ever-growing need to be satisfied??
Simply put, duh, every time, our text book answer is Jesus.
Jesus paid it all…all to Him I owe…
Oh happy day, He washed my sins away…
You’re a good, good father and I’m loved by you….
Oh I need you, Oh I need you. Every hour I need you, my one defense my righteousness, oh God how I need you…..the list goes on.
It’s in the bible, over and over and over and over, in every song that we sing on Sunday, part of every word that we preach in our Sunday School class and every Beth Moore bible study that we take home to diligently add to our “I’ve been a good Christian today” list.
and yet.
We sit around with or girlfriends, reading screen-shotted text messages, deciphering what they mean, what our next move should be, what pictures he liked on our Instagram and what that could mean, and wonder why this guy isn’t satisfying our heart.
We talk to our mothers and fathers over dinner and complain about how difficult our millennial lives are and how over-qualified we are to work at our entry level jobs, even though they are the ones that slaved away to put us through school, and there are millions of people living in countries that would kill for our problems.
We complain to our significant others about how annoying our friends are, and we don’t understand “why they can’t just be happy for me” when we really mean “I don’t understand why she can’t just abandon her own opinion long enough to appease me, and be the friend that I want her to be, rather than love her for the friend that she actually is.”
Let me tell you what we do when we do that, folks.
We are putting a weight on the people that we love more than the moon and the stars above that they were never meant to carry.
Take a second.
Look at your life.
Are you really depending on the Holy Spirit for comfort in your times of need?
Are you allowing the hole that is specifically designed in our hearts for the Alpha and the Omega to be filled by Him? Do you truly need Him every hour? Is He your ONE defense and your righteousness?
Is your hope really in Him? Or does your hope rest on a world that never wanted you here in the first place. Are you asking for water, because you are dying of thirst, from a well that is all. dried. up?
Or is your hope in how many likes you got on your last Facebook status update. Does your joy rest in the arms of a boy that would rather watch your snapchat story than show up at your front door when you’ve had a bad day? Do you lean into the comfort of an entire season of Stranger Things when your soul is hungry for rest and rejuvenation? Do you wait for a paycheck just to spend it mindlessly online on materialistic items that you won’t want anymore in two weeks?
Society, this is the huge mistake that we have made. We are raising an entire generation, and teaching older ones, to believe that our world will satisfy our ever growing need to be satisfied.
. . .
Phew. Let me back up and breathe for a second.
Disclaimer: I’m not saying enjoying the things of this world is a bad thing. Working hard, having fun, earning shopping trips, and rewarding yourself are just as important as the point that I’m trying to make. Another big part of this disclaimer is that almost every single example I have given, is an exact example of what I do on a daily basis. Preaching to the choir is an UNDERSTATEMENT.
(I’m more or less grilling myself right now.)
BUT Y’ALL.
If we base the root of who we are, where we are going, our purpose in life, who we want to grow into being one day, the spouse that we want to be, the parent that we want to be, the employee that we want to be, the reputation that we want to have..
OUR HAPPINESS
if we base it on any. thing. else.
other than the solidity, consistency, and the stability of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, and the confidence of who WE are as our own people
you are setting yourself up for heartbreak and pain.
This world will leave you dead, empty, forsaken, forgotten and alone.
This world will take every single spiritual gift that God gave you and corrupt it and leave you empty-handed every time, and disguise itself in petty, conceeded attention and self-glory. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day.
One day very soon.
Don’t let society confuse you and use you.
There is only one way to true happiness. And He’s been sitting on the throne of glory, waiting on you to realize it and run home to sit by Him and to glorify His name.
Always yours,
Kristen
“The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be a foolish man, who build his house on the sand.” -Matthew 7:25-26
