Cheap Imitations
When we feel ‘marked’ by the world, we have two, very disparate responses. We can try to cover up the marks left by the world, or we can try to find something else to wash it away in the present moment.
When we try to cover things up, when we bury our desire for eternity – we can get caught up and distracted by the world. We’re easily drawn into behaviours and patterns that can harm us, or at the very least, take us away from the two universal purposes we each carry – relationship with Jesus, and the great commission – to tell others the good news of the Gospel.
I know for me, when I’m feeling ‘marked’, aware of my own failings as well as everyone’s around me, I find it harder to open the Bible than a social media app. I try to cover up a feeling of incompleteness, but the very thing I look to only leaves me more dissatisfied. It’s the equivalent of seeing a small splodge of dirt on the back of my hand and going out to make mud pies.
Satisfying in the moment, but in reality, I’ve just made the mark bigger. Covering up our need for the eternal with the temporal just highlights how poorly the two compare. We go to the place we’re called in the great commission, but have nothing to take there with us, and nothing to show for our time there.
Another thing that we can do it is to try to wash away the way the world marks us. Sounds good surely? But not if we’re doing it in our own power – we can become so eternity focussed, so caught up in exact meanings of every word Jesus ever said that we become – as an old saying goes – ‘so heavenly minded that we’re of no earthly good’. Modern day Pharisees. Quite the blanket statement, but here’s my thoughts on it. We’ve been placed on this earth, at this time to reach people that perhaps will only ever hear the Gospel through us. God has set eternity in our hearts, (Ecclesiastes 3:11) not for us to chase only after that as the ultimate goal, but to inspire us to bring others with us too.
As we recognise the longing in our hearts for more, for every tear to be wiped from every eye when the Lord comes to His people (Rev 21:1-4) – can we be the people who walk the middle ground – so inspired by the eternity that Jesus bought for us that we cannot help but go out into the world to share it. Despite the hurt and the pain around us, can we be those who will brave a fallen world to rescue others with the Gospel of Jesus’ love? Not locked away forever debating details of pre-destination without action – but going and doing the work of the great commission – and trusting that God will fulfil all He has had planned from before creation. Whether we understand it or not.
If Heaven is all we could ever hope for and desire, we must be those that share it too.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
(Revelation 21:1-4 NLT)
Questions:
- Take a moment to pray over today’s thoughts and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Where are you covering over the marks made by the present world, hiding from heaven because the comparison between eternity and the circumstances around you is too bleak? Or where you are keeping the world at arm’s length to avoid being marked by it?
- Where do you feel the pain of the fallen world most deeply? Could that be God asking you to step into that area with His light?
