In today’s fast paced world, we are told who to be, who to follow, and how to be our best possible self.  Advertisements hound us with the next product or service that guarantees our happiness and satisfaction.  Social media creates envy within our hearts as we delicately try and craft profiles and posts that will get the most laughs or the most likes.  But what is this society creating within us?  It gives the illusion that we are independent, we make the choices that dictate the course of our lives.  The control over our circumstances and relationships is deemed to be in our hands.  And yet, we are dependent upon the machine that created our dissatisfaction, our loneliness, our isolation.  How then, are we to be truly joyful?  How to live in the present moment rather than for a past or future version of ourselves?

Movement towards our Lord and Savior is the only way in which to separate ourselves from the sorrow and pain this life can give.  It isn’t about how we can dictate the course of our lives or how we can make ourselves look well kept and put together.  It is about complete and utter dependency on Him.  Not us, but Him.  In every moment of every day we should seek His guiding hands.  Every moment we face in a given day is a moment in which we need Christ.  Even in the mundane, Christ should be at the forefront of our minds.  For only in Him can peace be found.  When we focus on the cross and not on our Instagram page, we begin to regain the joyfulness that was once lost.  Society creates insecurities.  It creates doubt within and thus we strive to always better ourselves.  But Christ has already done that.  He died and resurrected so that our blemishes, our failures, and our mistakes are taken care of.  We no longer need to worry about hiding what we believe to be wrong with us.  We shouldn’t have to shove our worst parts down to the depths of our being where they give us heartache and pain.  Bring your worst parts and lay them at His feet.

There is no judgment at the feet of Jesus.  When we depend upon Him, we are made new.  We are given grace and mercy and are told to go forth in love to continue pursuing Him in community.  Creating environments where Christ is the focus and not an afterthought.  Our insecurities and anxieties begin to melt away when we sit at His feet and recognize that we are free to live in Christ’s love and not in the shadow of societies’ judgments.

Give it up.  Let’s give up the fake profile and the fake image for the real thing.  For the thing that satisfies all our desires and allows us to live this short life to the fullest.  Let us fix our eyes on the cross and always return our wandering gaze to Christ, the One who makes us whole.  The One who loves without judgment.  Utter dependency.  Certainly a hard thing to do.  But perhaps the most important choice we can make.

 

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”  Proverbs 16:9