When did we start believing the idea was to live in as much comfort and enjoying as much pleasure as we possibly can until our time comes to die? It’s nowhere in the Bible. In fact in the very first pages we see that sort of Utopian existence destroyed and our planet cursed with the sin which had been invited in. In the beginning, it was all about God. Nothing has changed.
It is still all about God. Except somehow, somewhere along the way, we began to think it’s all about us. We were created to worship God, but what most of us ever worship is ourselves. We put it in much more congenial terms like, “God wants me to be happy”, or the pathetic, “I deserve this”. It’s as if we think we can reverse the curse and live in our own self-created paradise.
Somewhere deep inside, I think we’re all still longing for paradise, so we spend our days trying to build it around us. The problem is we’re building with earthly things rather than the things of God. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you had a terrible day and the first thing you reached for when you got home was your Bible? Satan has done an incredible job of convincing us happiness and comfort are found in things of this world. We find redemption eating comfort foods, drinking our favorite drink, and staring mindlessly at the luminescent hue emanating from our giant screen televisions. This isn’t peace; it’s escapism, and we’re wasting our lives.
Worse still, we absolve ourselves of criticism by pointing to our brokenness. Some even wear their brokenness like a badge of honor, as if it explains everything. The whole point of being broken is to get to the point where you give up and allow Christ to fix you. It’s in the mending God is glorified. We should all aspire to a state of brokenness, but we should never be content to stay there.
The fact is you don’t deserve anything other than Hell, and if not for the incredible love and mercy of God, that would be the destiny of us all. God doesn’t want you to be happy, He wants you to be holy. He is wise enough to know if we live holy lives we will be happier than we ever dreamed possible.
We can’t reverse the curse. Our time on earth is to be spent in labor. We must choose whether we will labor for the Kingdom of God or the temple of self. You cannot chase comfort, security, and possessions and also choose to follow Jesus. Those things are not found on the road that leads to Him. It’s a narrow path, and you can’t carry all of that stuff with you. There’s a wide road for that, and you’ll find plenty of company along the way. If you choose to follow Christ, this world will probably not hold comfort and pleasure for you. That’s okay; I’ll trade 70-80 years of comfort for an eternity with Jesus any day. How about you?