We Are Not of This World

Ten years ago it was my 14^th birthday. Birthdays are supposed to be fun and exciting, especially when you’re fourteen and living in Iowa. Here’s what was supposed to happen: I would get my driver’s permit, eat lots of yummy food, drive home, and have a great time with my family. What actually happened was this: I didn't study for the test, failed it, disappointed multiple people, cried a ton, and that’s all I remember. Because I was so focused on one thing going right, I had forgotten that I probably still had great food and fun times with my family that day, but it was ruined because one thing didn't go my way. What was supposed to happen, didn't actually happen.

Another example of what is supposed to happen in our lives is life itself. As a man living in Iowa, I’m supposed to get married when I’m 26, have kids at 30, have a mid-life crisis around the age of 40, have grandkids at 55, and die when I’m 78 years old. What’s actually happening is that I’m nowhere near marriage. So yes, it’s frustrating since I’m feeling pressure from the world around me as well as myself to have and to hold someone known to lots of people as a “girlfriend,” but that’s the way it actually is right now. And according to life’s rules, I’m a failure.

Sometimes I feel like a failure when events that are supposed to happen and the events that actual happen don’t match up with each other. We can’t predict the future; we can only dream and speculate about what might happen. Making the game winning shot; passing the hardest test ever; and finally being smarter than your father are just some of the future events that we dream about quite a bit. And that’s what ultimately makes us feel like a failure; when our wishes and prayers and thoughts of what might happen don’t actually happen.

We do this all the time. We fantasize about future events because it’s optimistic, dream-like, and, most importantly, not in the present moment. The future is always bright, no matter where you’re at. Even if we think our future is bleak, we still try to make our future not as bleak as it seems.

We are also not the first ones to be optimistic about our future. Think about Adam and Eve. Picture them in the Garden of Eden, living life with God by their side. But once the Tree of Good and Evil was presented to them, they were amazed. A tree bearing fruit containing the wisdom of God! What could we be able to do with all of that knowledge?

Think about it. Picture yourself in their shoes. What could we do with the knowledge of everything God has ever known? We might be able to do anything we want, knowing that truth and goodness will always prevail. Maybe there would be an eternal Garden of Eden that’s better than the current garden. Maybe crops would grow exactly when and where we want them to grow. Maybe I could find a girlfriend – one that actually likes me!

The serpent was right in trying to picture a bright future for Adam and Eve in their heads.

Genesis 3:5 – For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Once that positive thought of the future entered their minds, nothing else mattered. Everything was done to make sure that whatever was supposed to happen, actually happens.

Adam and Eve were supposed to live like God, thinking and acting like Him. They would be equals to God once they bit into the apple. But in actuality, God banished them from the garden, and made their lives miserable. They thought their idea was the best idea, and it backfired on them.

I sometimes think the world revolves around my ideas, since my ideas about life are the best. We also want to be in control of our ideas, and more importantly, make money off of them. We get frustrated and mad if someone stole our idea and used it for their advantage. So, we do the only thing that makes since in America – go to court and sue them. We have to take back what was rightfully ours. 

But is it yours to begin with? Our verse for the day is John 17: 6-19, but I’m going to start at verse 13. This is Jesus talking to God.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they [the disciples] may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them in to the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

We are not of this world. Jesus says this twice, so it must be important. We are not of this world. We’re not here to own everything. We don’t control everything and anything in our path. Because we are not of this world.

Most of the time, we try to control our future by controlling everything around us, even those that are uncontrollable. We want our futures to be so bright, and if you get in our way, we will destroy you. We haven’t looked around enough to stay in the moment, in the present tense, in the now. Instead of wondering what we will become, or what we have done in the past, we need to be. Just be. Here. Now. In the moment.

It’s alright to dream and it’s alright to think about the future. But the part where we mess up is the reaction to reality. When something doesn’t align with our dream, we get disappointed, discouraged, and ultimately feel like a failure, even though we’re already successes just by being here. On Earth, in 2015, with the people we love.

Everyone’s goals are for them, but we also need to try to align our goals with God’s goals for us. Most of the time, we’re praying to God for ourselves, for our own dreams to come true. Like a genie granting us wishes that we want.

If that’s how we treat God, and subsequently how we control other people, we will always feel like a failure at everything we do. So let’s line up our vision with God’s. And since we don’t know what God has in store for us, let us walk his narrow path instead of fighting the bigger path and placing God’s path somewhere else. That’s what Adam and Eve did. That’s what a lot of people – including me – are doing right now.

Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it seem like it’s not working most of the time? Quite a bit. But it’s a little easier to realize once we understand that we are not of this world. We are not here to control our own destiny. We are not of this world, but let’s treat earth as it is in heaven. Let God’s grace and power reign down over us, let his path shine our way, and let his Word guide us through the future as well as the present.

Besides, I believe God can pick out a better girlfriend for me than I ever could on my own. Thank God for his mercy and understanding. Hallelujah, and amen.