Day after day, I observe cars and pedestrians being reckless. There seems to be no regard for anyone. It boggles my mind.
Let me share a little context for you. I live in Billings, Montana. It’s a big little city. People travel here to shop from miles away; however, the city is not large. Anywhere I go in any direction takes 7 minutes. The only exception is downtown or the heights. The possible travel time to that area is about 20 minutes max. I share these details to help you see things more accurately.
If you live in Billings, work in Billings, and run errands in Billings, there is no reason to drive fast or recklessly. I came from Southern California, and if you have a 20-mile drive, you’d better plan to leave 1.5 or 2 hours early to arrive on time. But that is not the case here.
Our recklessness will lead to death, and yet we carry on. It has me thinking. Where are we going? What is so important that we are willing to kill another human being or ourselves?
Soon after asking myself these questions, I knew the answers went deep. While the thought started with traffic, it ended with a bigger problem: Jesus is not the center of our lives. We are so consumed with self-preservation and gratification that we are blind to everyone and everything else.
Like Paul tells us: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” Philippians 2:3-5, NLT. If we followed this teaching, we wouldn’t drive recklessly because we’d put others above ourselves.
Beyond driving, our daily mentality always feels rushed and aggressive, and for what? This constant need to rush drives us to do things that are not humble or in the attitude of Christ. We are aggressive and must protect what we think is best for our lives. God is not in that. So it makes me ask, “What are we living for?” God created each of us with a divine purpose. He gave us His Holy, unchanging Word and calls us to stand on it. He calls us to be salt and light in the world. He has never wanted us to go with the flow. Are we standing on His Word and living in the purpose He created us for?
In Genesis, God created man and woman to walk in paradise with Him. They had no work to do. Their purpose was to reap the benefits of His presence and glorious creation. They had the best-case scenario laid before them, but they were tempted to be their own God, to know what God knows. They gave in to that temptation, resulting in a cursed land where they would toil for the rest of their lives.
In Exodus, after the people had walked away from God and into slavery under the Egyptian Pharaoh, they finally called on the Lord. The Lord responded because He is faithful and delivered them from slavery. The people walked with God again. They had His presence with them on the journey, but because they had to trust and rely on Him instead of what they were used to, they fell away again. They would rather be slaves than be under the care of the Almighty. Why? Seems odd, right? Because surrendering our will to the Almighty comes with difficulties. It also comes with blessings. But we only want the blessings, so we wander away, as if anything apart from God could truly bless us.
In Judges, the people rejected God and did evil. “The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of those around them. And they angered the LORD. They abandoned the LORD to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. This made the LORD burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them” (Judges 2:11-15, NLT).
Even though the Lord was angry, He took pity on His people, time and time again. “Whenever the LORD raised a judge over Israel, He was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the LORD took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering” (Judges 2:18, NLT). It’s worth noting that the people turned away from the living God to worship fake gods who did absolutely nothing for them. If we pay attention, we can see that we, too, turn to things that do nothing for us (at times) instead of keeping our hearts and minds fixed on God.
Are you picking up the pattern yet? God is always faithful, and we are not. We turn to sin. I guess because it’s easier, more gratifying in the moment, but when we turn to sin, we are only choosing destruction for our souls and for our world. God will always be faithful if we humble ourselves and return to Him, but we cannot be passive in our faith.
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NLT).
We must choose where we are going. We must focus our eyes on the prize that is Christ. It is the only way to make it through. We must put distractions to death and live in the truth that God gave us.
How we conduct ourselves in this world is evidence of who our heart belongs to.
Following Jesus is not just a declaration; it is evident in our lives. We cannot support sin in the name of love and be holy. We cannot stand up for evil and say we are going to heaven.
God is not about fairness in our eyes; He is not about making everyone feel good. He is about holiness and making us holy to live in His presence. “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21, NLT). When we fight for the right to sin, we fight against God. Thankfully, we can still turn around.
God wants us to go His way and quiet the voices that aren’t His. The voices that pressure us to conform and perform should be silenced so that they don’t influence us to focus our energy and minds on anything that takes us away from Him.
God has not called us to please man, but Him. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2, NLT).
I know the struggle of living in this world while trying to live for Christ. It is tough, and it should be. Going where God wants us to go causes friction. To live the way He calls us to live requires courage.
How can we get this courage to live boldly for and with the Lord? We get this courage from Him. We won’t choose courage if we never get to know God, because until you know Him, it’s hard to see the benefit, but when you know Him, you will be willing to die for Him, because He died for you.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).
Does the direction of our life point to Jesus? If it doesn’t yet, He will help us live for Him if we let Him.
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:13, NLT).
Let us pause and reflect on this question once again. Where are we going? Are we running into death, knocking people over on our way, or are we walking into life and inviting others to walk with us?
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/georgeclerk
Vanessa Luu is a wife, mother, and faith-based writer. She speaks and writes to believers to encourage them to live authentically with God.