An Upside Down World


This week I started a new ADVENT Bible study, and I learned that many of the members of my group had previously been on mission trips.  

As we talked about the people we'd encountered when we'd gone to "serve", our consensus was the same...the people we had met, those we'd gone to "help", though living meager lives in VERY ROUGH conditions, often seemed much happier than people here in the United States.

We all were struck by the fact that the people we'd met had loving spirits, an inner peace, and a genuine joy that seemed implausible given the hardships of their lives.

We talked about how people with dirt floors, and homes made from corrugated metal and cardboard, seemed to have a better sense of God, a better sense of the value of family, and a better sense of community, than many of us here in the U.S. do.  We wondered about why that might be...

And then one young woman spoke up.  She said, the people in the U.S, that aren't happy are unfulfilled because they are trying to be their own God.

WOW!!! Spot on, young sister.  Spot on.

Oftentimes I think we believe worldly things:  fame, wealth, good looks, or possessions, are the things that will make us happy - but the Bible tells us this:

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4

God made us with hearts that cry out for Him.  When we choose to ignore His call and look for happiness in the things of this world, we are making ourselves our own god.  We are saying, "we know better than You do...and if I keep looking, I will find the thing that makes me happy."

It's a lie.

Of ALL the things I did this past year - do you know what made my heart happiest?  The time I spent in Nicaragua - working with people who know, love, and trust God.

If we want to live in a right-side-up world, it's time we stop looking to be our own gods and instead focus on Him.


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