There are times when we find ourselves all tangled up “in the weeds” of emotionally or spiritually unhealthy “things.” We may struggle with unsatisfying lifestyles or disappointment and emptiness because relationships, achievements, and pleasures fail to sustain our emotional and spiritual needs. It is even possible to be achieving our potential but left wondering whether there is purpose to it all?
Although created in God’s image, we still struggle with worldly chaos and disordered natures. We are stirred by a culture obsessed with entertainment, physical appearance, materialism, personal rights, and self-actualization. So, we are easily attracted to and captured by “vain philosophies and empty deceit “according to human tradition” (Colossians 2:8).
When we do not keep an eternal perspective, ugliness surfaces. Greed, envy, jealousy, pride, unrighteous anger, and unforgiveness lead to the deadly consequences of unhappiness, bitterness, shame, broken relationships, aggression, and crime. Life can take on the aura of senselessness. King Solomon said that”…all is vanity.” Shakespeare wrote in that famous soliloquy , “All our yesterdays light fools the way to dusty death…Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player who walks and struts upon the stage, and then is heard no more!” In his “ The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot suggested an inglorious end: “ This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”
God guides us into a different perspective, into a hope that is not found “in the efforts and traditions of men” but discovered in His inspired, empowering words which the Psalmist calls “a light to our path.” The Mosaic Law and the Gospel of Jesus are “other-oriented” and “outward focused.” They are powerful forces for change when examined through the lens of God’s grace and faith. Although we fail the moral imperative of selflessly loving God with all our being and our “neighbor” as ourselves, Christ came to lift us up and transform our minds and souls. Christian faith fixes its eyes on the gracious, humble, selfless, perfect Christ who thought not of himself but went to the cross to take upon himself the wrath which our unholiness deserves. In him, we discover forgiveness, redemption, hope, meaning, and purpose,healing and wholeness.
Christ’s teachings enlighten and instruct, and his immeasurable grace, mercy, and love give us the righteousness and strength necessary to be what humans are meant to be. He came to untangle us—to free us from the bonds of guilt and shame, to release us from burdensome selfishness, and to disengage us from the vapid entrapments of this world through faith in him.
Sweet Words from Maine 