Worldview

What is your worldview? This is probably not something most of us sit around thinking about and yet it impacts every decision and action that you make in life.  Thefreedictionary.com defines worldview: The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. 2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or group.

 

I guess I’ve been pondering this because of all the stuff going on in our worlds…abortion, medicine, elections, Muslim curriculum, common core, ever present attempts to fuel a race war, Hollywood’s continued push to desensitize us to sin…the list is really endless! I don’t really want to even talk about any of these issues specifically. I just wonder what our worldviews really are.

 

For instance: if you are a Christian (we’ll define this as someone who loves, honors and obeys the Lord, Adonai) do you really believe the Word to be true, living, and useful in every moment of your life? do you believe the Holy Spirit dwells within you to help you become more like Christ and to lead you? Is your belief in the Lord and the Bible and His Spirit unvarnished? Or is it tainted/influenced by the world that we live in? Or do you believe in the Lord and karma? Or the Lord and self? Or the Lord and America? Or the Lord and power? Or the Lord and my doctor? This list is also endless…

 

God has really been working hard and heavy on my mind and my heart and my worldview and challenging it to the very core. I just wonder what our world would like if we allowed the very depths, the entire Truth to totally saturate and challenge everything that we hold dear. I would like to share the way that God has been redefining my worldview, but I want you to understand that I am not saying you should find my worldview, although I do hope that you will find my God and that you will totally and blindly adore and honor Him and maybe, just maybe His light will shine brightly from my heart like a beacon straight to Him. I am a military brat, from quite the career military family, raised to be a patriot and having experienced life in another country and culture, the spirit of entrepreneurship and pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps runs deeply, the American dream taught and demonstrated. Now, I find myself at a place where I’m not an American. I am a Christ follower. I don’t want to pull myself up and be another rags to riches story. I am a Christ follower. I don’t pledge allegiance to a flag. I pledge allegiance to Adonai. This is not my home. I belong in Heaven. I was not created long for this world. I was created in the image of God with eternity in mind.

 

Do you remember the Israelites that walked in circles in the dessert for 40 years? The chosen people who witnessed the 10 plagues 1^st hand, they saw the waters part and the Egyptians swallowed up, they received the 10 commandments on stone from God Himself, they saw the beauty on Moses’ face when he came down from being with God (and much much more, hopefully you get my drift). They made golden calves and worshipped idols and later begged God for a king to rule them. And God said He was their King and they continued to beg for a human king to rule them. And well, if you’ve read the Bible you know that did not turn out so well.

 

I am not saying to be a rebel. I am not saying not to support America or to vote. I am just saying that we should look different. I am a rebel. And lately I have noticed it rearing it’s ugly head over and over again. Some of our cultural/Christian/church traditions make me crazy. You don’t have to look far to figure out that many of our traditions are dead and serve no value and yet we hold onto them with tightly clenched fists. They have absolutely no Biblical backing and yet they have become like law. I am not interested in what we call church anymore, I am bored by our traditions and our version of wandering aimlessly through the dessert. I am interested in looking different. I want the church (not the one on every other corner but the actual church which the Lord defines as His body of believers) to look different. I want the statistics to reflect people who have done a 180 turnabout. I don’t want to just be a people that darken the doorstep of churches 3-4 times a week. I want to be part of a movement where the church is the church. I wonder what our country would look like if we hushed our mouths and bruised our knees. If we stopped with the soapboxes and the boycotting of all things of the world that we are supposed to live in and we fell to our knees. Again, do we really believe that the Holy Spirit is God? That He is alive and welcome here in America? What would happen if we stopped bashing presidential candidates like the rest of the world and just let the Holy Spirit do His thing? Do we believe what the Word says in Romans: that there is no authority in place that He has not allowed. Are we willing to look different? My worldview is still a work in progress and I am definitely a sinful saint. I am blunt and hyper and often wrong. But I am so grateful that Adonai loves me and continues to fight for me and humbles me and transforms me more and more every day.

 

Many many folks think we are living in the end times and that Jesus is soon returning. I still believe that we will not know, He is coming, but no one knows the day. Nevertheless, let’s live lives that say: I am ready for your return Jesus. And since He wants that none should perish, how about we show the world all the love He has given us. It is easy to love a loveable person, but let’s love those that are more difficult. Please remember from where you came. I have probably written it before…but my favorite story in the gospels is of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her alabaster jar of perfume and her tears and her long hair (LK 7:47). And Jesus told the naysayers: those who have been forgiven much, love much. Let’s remember how much we’ve been forgiven and that any and all sin separates us from God! We are all in such desperate need of a Savior!