What are you looking for?

Hey long time no see. Sorry I have been away, life happens and we get busy, but I am back this week to hopefully give you some good old fashioned mental stimulation.

Today I want to challenge you to step back and take an honest look at yourself and how you view things on a regular basis.

We may not realize it but it is very easy to get pulled into a negative mindset. We are bombarded by lies, falseness, sin, and corruption every single day. We live in a world cursed by sin and sometimes it is all too obvious, it can be suffocating.

It is hard to find a movie without questionable content, just about every other TV show out there now has glowing portrayals of homosexual relationships, pop songs on the radio are rarely about anything other than sex,  and even simple funny cat websites seem to go out of their way to mock anything that is pure they happen to find.

I think that this often leaves us a little jaded, walking around defensively looking for things to be upset about or take offense from.

This is a shame but not completely unexpected. We can do better. Check out these verses:

Matt 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Philip 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Colos 3:2

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things

We can’t make all the negative things go away but we can change what we are looking for. Sometimes what you are looking for drastically changes what you find.

Is Harry Potter gateway entertainment that inevitably leads to witchcraft and eternal damnation or is it a story about a group of kids who stand up to the forces of evil no matter the personal cost?

It the song lyric says “Pursue the Truth no matter where it lies..” does it matter if it is in a heavy metal song?

Does the book explaining why the universe can exist with God actually spell out how the “big bang” would have required a miracle?

It is easy to feel like we should attack these things, but I say that when we do that we are missing the point. There will always be falseness and lies, sin and corruption (until Jesus returns). In the meantime if we look for the nuggets of truth that are present all around us we will see that every good thing does come from God and you can find atheists and heathens inadvertently proclaiming His truth every day. These are opportunities for us to show people how all true things point back to God.

But only if we are looking for them.

Don't get me wrong, you should continue to avoid sin and live righteously. Just remember that we will get a lot farther pointing out the light than we will cursing the darkness.

-Chief