I walk
through the mall, or in the supermarket, or on a crowded street, all the while
searching through a sea of faces, and searching for one person to make eye
contact with me. If I find eyes to connect with, I smile, and am blessed by the
occasional grin or greeting. In a world where everything is at our fingertips,
our society is wading through the mindless hurry, and drowning in thousands of
messages shared daily. We struggle to connect one-to-one, but instead cling to
the false promise that we will find joy and success if we: attain more, improve
what we are doing, become smarter, more beautiful, more slender, wealthier,
more famous, have a more successful portfolio for retirement, are more influential…
Failing to meet the bar of success at each new level attained, we finally ask,
“What is it worth?" At what cost do we live our lives seeking the things of the
world?
In
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Solomon wrote: “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this
was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after
the wind“. Solomon had accumulated great wealth, power, and wisdom; everything
the world had to offer, yet he came to hate all that he lived for.
Solomon
could be compared to Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, billionaires who spent the
first chapter of their lives accumulating wealth. After years of accumulating
wealth and luxury, they have realized it is worth little, and now are committed
to giving it away. Devotion.
After
years of drowning in the sea of mixed messages, I found salvation through Jesus
Christ. I exchanged the temporary fixes of this world for Him. I received His
love, forgiveness, and His Holy Spirit to live in me eternally. My heart began
to delight in living devoted to Him.
The world sparkles with glamour, and although false, it has the ability to pull our focus and devotion towards it. I have found that as followers of Christ, we can come against what the culture says is ok and what is not ok, through the promises found in the Bible. I have found that I need to spend time in Bible study and prayer daily. It is as important as needing air to breathe and water to sustain life! I learned that for me to stay focused, I need to turn off the phone and to journal what is on my mind and my prayers to Him, thereby combating distractions. Left to myself, I am capable of being drawn away.
To live a life devoted to Jesus, is true life. As I look into the faces in a crowd, I wish to share this joy and life with them through a smile. Maybe one day someone will stop me and ask me why I smile, and the reason for my hope. I will be ready to share with them my answer. (1Peter 3:15)