It’s hard to get Christian parents in America to care about pretty much anything. Have you noticed? Well, that’s not entirely true. Most Christian parents care plenty about their favorite football team, or their social media accounts, or the food they’re going to eat, or their income, or how they’re going to spend their summer… those things really get their pulse rate up and undivided attention.
But when it comes to the higher topics—godliness, parenting, serving others, reading Scripture, attending church—well, they can’t be bothered to even flick their finger on the internet in recognition. After all, there are more important matters to attend to. Life is simply stocked full of topics that are flashier, more fun, and mesmerizingly pleasurable. The inward-turning stuff—those are the topics of interest. Anything that makes people feel better, even for a moment. And the internet provides the absolutely perfect answer to those desires on a 24/7 basis. Click and receive….and your joy will be temporary.
What is offered in Christianity—the topics we talk about and meditate on and delve into—are not offering people anything that fits into those constantly cultivated areas of their lives these days.
Christianity never has been about entertainment or pleasure or immediate fulfillment of selfish desires.
It doesn’t make you feel better to be a Christian.
Not in an easy, pleasurable, temporary way, at least.
Contemplating how you should spend your time, or thinking about your spiritual depravity and need for God in your life, doesn’t make you feel better. You’re not going to feel excited after you sit in silence and reflect on how you talk to your children or how impatient you’ve been lately. You’re not going to find it easy to face who you are and your need for God.
That actually promises to make you uncomfortable. It might even make you feel sad for a time. And the reality is, we’re doing everything we can here in America to keep ourselves and our children from any negative feelings. God forbid we should feel uncomfortable for even a moment! We will do everything we can to avoid discomfort because we believe in being entertained and at ease all the time. We believe we’re entitled to happiness and fulfillment RIGHT THIS MINUTE. And if we don’t have it, then something is wrong in our environment and needs to be changed materially. And feel we can do that with money or with screens so very easily.
Something is wrong, and it’s deep within our souls. We are empty, and our hearts cannot be filled by social media, friends, travel, or even our spouse. Every single person has a deep hole in their hearts that only God can fill, and He is calling us to Him every single day, arms open wide, wanting to fill that void. Because He loves us, He pursues us, and He will not be silent, even when we hide our faces from Him. Even when we run from Him. Even when we cover his voice with the sounds of our entertainment.
We must battle the world’s pull to suck us into endless striving for fulfillment and pleasure in temporary things. We are called to fight against it, and only in doing so will we find any sense of peace and fulfillment.
Reorient us, Lord, and make us to be like David, a man after your own heart.
Focus us on the right topics and make us passionate for truth and righteousness.
Give us boldness and courage to go against the tide of our culture and to resist the lure of all that seeks to distract us. Amen.
