So, when you get up in the morning, what wakes you up? Is it your alarm clock or your passion? The happiest of us would say our passion, but is that really true? Are we actually living for what we are passionate about or are we settling for the second-rate leftovers life dishes up? Yet, at the same time, we need to be positive our passions are in line with the heart of God. Is it quite possible we are blindly existing in a self-made, self-promoting, borderline narcissistic delusion? We all would do well to remember the wise counsel of Solomon as he wrote, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) The way we are going may seem right, look right, and even feel right. However, when our choices become confusingly tangled up in oneself, they tend to start leading us to a quick demise.
New motives for foolishness are fueled by the seemingly endless diet of voyeurism we consume through social media. Many seem to be living their lives quietly tucked under the shadows of others, assimilating themselves into the shape of someone else’s reality and dreams to the neglect of truly discovering our own. Many often deconstruct God’s divine purpose and direction for our lives. Attempting a foolishly willful and soulful makeover of our dreams and ideals in order to weave them into the flashy tapestry. The ever changing social trends, famous YouTubers, and other media driven nobility has thrown out there. Our culture has enthroned them on new high places of false worship. We see this phrase over and over again in the study of the kings, “…except that the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” (2 Kings 15:4) We quite often and sadly treat this daily consumption of endless information into our lives as if it is the only way to find our purpose. The meaning and direction for living out our lives with even a small sense of fulfillment. Our culture has built up new high places for the worship of every type of false god we can conjure up. Yet, now we don’t even need to travel to a physical location because our new gods come to us within an instant and on the go access. With each late night swipe of our little handheld blue-glow gods we are losing our God given individuality into the cesspool of compromise and conformity.
We need to stop the madness! Unplug and slow down. How long has it been since we stopped to take inventory of our lives to remove the idols and inappropriate worship of those things which bring to us no benefit or blessing? Some hard choices will need to be made by each of us. Consider what Joshua asked the people, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14–15)
It is way past time that we should have been asking ourselves; “what is the core of our motives?” Why? Well, to be honest, the wrong driving force can easily get us lost in the dark wilderness of this life. Power, prestige, popularity, relationships, and the accumulation of possession and wealth are only a few of the things baiting the countless traps set to destroy us all. True love, peace, joy and fulfillment are found in our personal relationship with the LORD. We must make a choice as to whether we will live to serve and worship Him or the things in this world. John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15–17