Sometimes I’m struck by how little impact I have in our world. I hear preachers hype up the idea of Christians changing the world for Christ, yet I look around me and I just don’t see it. I don’t think I’ve had much of an impact at all. I know that my part is to do the work and leave the results to God. I can do that, but sometimes I look in my rearview mirror and it seems that nothing has changed. Not for the better anyway. The best of my efforts has yielded very little. I had a conversation with a close relative who claims to be a Christian recently and the beliefs she doggedly held to were as worldly as any anti-Christian atheist. It was just crushing to have someone that close espouse the lame “You cant believe what the Bible says” and “Those rules were for then and we’re more modern now” lines of a militant atheist. Or what about ” God just wants us to be happy so we can do whatever makes us happy.” Entirely nonsensical statements from people who should know better. Its just brutal to hear such nonsense from someone close. If I cant even save my own, how can I save anyone else? I know, its Jesus that saves, but I think you get my drift. People say stupid things on television all the time and we’ve grown accustomed to that, but when I see so many friends and relatives believe the lies that the media and world offer. I cant help looking around and feeling quite lonely. I’m not bashful about my faith at all, and try to help at every opportunity, but no one has made a positive turn. None are closer to Jesus. Its like the Beatles song,”All the Lonely People.” Friends that is a depressing bit of realism.
If anyone tells you that being a real Christian is easy, they’re lying to you. Fake is easy. The burden of knowing the truth is finding out how much is untrue. Yes we can give our burdens to Jesus, but just seeing how messed up things are is tough to reason out. I suppose it gives me a great deal more empathy for Lot in Sodom. Everything around him was being taken over violently by sin and he and his family were isolated. I wonder how his day went, his interactions with relatives and former friends that he saw choose the popular “Latest” lie? What did he think about? Even though God brought him and most of his family out alive, Lots life was still plagued by trouble. Its a tough thing to watch and reason out. He seemingly made no positive difference.
I will always trust God and Jesus for my salvation and I will always be their humble servant. I trust that they know what they’re doing even though it looks really bad to me. I don’t know if I’m making any difference at all, but He is my master and I will serve Him. Its His show, not mine. I hope my bit of melancholy and spiritual doldrums fall under grace as well. Let me say to my fellow believers, I don’t think its wrong to get down about things, but its wrong to stay down. Maybe offering a bit of encouragement to those who have helped you along your walk would be a fine thing too.
Until then friends,
” I look at all the lonely people, I look at all the lonely people, Elenore Rigby, Died in the church and was buried alone with her name, Nobody came, Father Mackenzie, Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from her grave, No one was saved, All the lonely people, where do they all come from?, All the lonely people, where do they all belong?”
humbleshoeshineboy 