DAY 115 - MATERIAL WORLD
Casey Fink, Youth Pastor, Park Meadows Campus
“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:8-11
In our culture and society today, we are constantly being presented with this thought, “You need more.” Whether you hear those exact words or not, our culture’s whole motive is to set the perspective that we need more in our lives. And that thought has driven us to be a culture of materialism and this need and desire to have more and more things and to know more and more information and be more and more successful in our jobs.
Every day we are hit with headlines, ideas, trends, songs, clothes, and things that scream the narrative and thought, that we need more. And because this is so present in our lives today, it sends us on a trajectory of never feeling fulfilled, content, or secure. Since we are running and chasing this idea of being content through this false narrative from the world, we don’t even have time to stop and look into the depths of our soul. We don’t have time to stop and draw near to the Lord.
A.W. Tozer, a pastor and theologian says, “Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies.”
You see, what Tozer is getting at in this quote is that in our world today it’s nearly impossible to be content, and since it’s nearly impossible to be content we will always have this drive to consume and because we are so focused on consuming we are unable to stop and draw near. Draw near to the Lord. Draw near to Jesus. Draw near to the Holy Spirit.
But the paradox in all of this is that when we are able to go against the grain of what society is telling us, no longer running for more but simply being with Jesus, we find ourselves being more content and satisfied than ever before.
In the words of David, the author of Psalm 16, when we sit with the Lord, when we dwell on who He is, when we draw near to him, we find ourselves secure, experiencing a fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore.
And so my challenge for all of us today is to choose to abide in the Lord, rather than abiding in the false idea that life is all about the chase and making sure that you get yours and you consume, and know everything that’s happening in our world today which puts all our focus on things that will ultimately fade away. So rather than scrolling just to kill time, may we turn off our phone for 30 minutes just simply to think and to pray, or instead of driving listening to NPR again, choosing to drive in silence and rather than checking our inbox to see what our next assignment for work is or trying to see when the next big sale is since there is nothing else to do, choose to go on a walk and pray and dwell on the Lord and who He is.
May we as the body of Christ, make it our top and only priority to abide in Jesus and who He is. Trusting and believing that he has all we need to feel truly fulfilled, satisfied, and content. No longer being a “generation of zombies”, as Tozer puts it, but instead being fully alive because we daily choose to abide and draw near to Jesus, our Lord.