What the 2021?

January 6, 2021 was horrible. And, yes, it was Trump’s fault. And, yes, it was his supporters.

And, no, Jesus wasn’t glorified in any of that.

I wrote something earlier in the week that hit at the essence of living and especially navigating this fallen world where we all feel like we’re on one of those American Ninja Warrior spinning wheels we need to traverse before continuing to the next obstacle. But we end up in the water time and time again.

***

We don’t deserve anything in this fallen world.

We get upset when it doesn’t operate properly (i.e., when people act like jerks), but for Bible-believing Christians, we should acknowledge that the standard on this planet is for everyone to act in their own self-interest and to gain via sinful means.

This isn’t being pessimistic. It’s reality.

Think of how beautiful it is (while keeping in mind the reality of how our fallen world truly operates)

when people actually sacrifice,

when people are truly thankful,

when people are vulnerable and seek help.

Those are good gifts from the Father above (James 1:17). Those are sweet opportunities to view progressive sanctification. That is heaven breaking through!

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 16:24

Reality is acknowledging the crappy worldly standard and then looking for how the created moves toward the Creator. That is hope.

Starting from a new standard of how everyone should be will lead to disappointment and legalistic blood-thirst. Every day will be a failure if I focus on what this world should produce for me, in order to have a “good” day.

How would viewing the world in its fallen state change how grateful I am when kindness and progress toward my Savior’s example abound?

If I’m truly honest, is there anything that I feel I really deserve or am owed in this broken world?

Do I really want to live in a world where a day is labeled as good or bad whether my fleshly self-seeking standard was met?

Sounds nice if I’m the only person on the planet because in real life it’s hard to force my standard on other people who are fighting for their standards to be met as well. Sounds and IS exhausting. A fight to the death every single day. No, thank you.

I would rather be grateful and blessed in surprise to see grace on hard days especially on days when I fail to even live up to my own standard. This doesn’t mean acting as a pushover. It’s recognizing that fighting for and obsession over our so-called rights and the temporal turns us into self cannibals.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:3-4

Will my standard be one of surrender to the kingdom and hope for what I can’t see and standing for my Servant-King who I will have to stand before at the end of my days?

James 4 is a great punch in your gut in reminding us how this world operates, but verses 13-17 is the vomit that makes you feel vulnerable yet better:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

As always, let the lesson soak into me first, Lord.