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A Beautifully Strange Journey

What is with our insatiable appetite to be entertained? Why are we not more intent on being sanctified? Why are our senses not trained to discern between good and evil? Because we have not delighted ourselves in the Lord Jesus and practiced the disciplines of godliness. We are like athletes surprised that they cannot perform because they keep skipping practice. They don't have a grasp on the fundamentals and therefore are unable to do what they are expected to do. Instead of finding our joy in Christ and feeding that joy by giving ourselves more fully to the Word of God and prayer, we settle for shadows and mirages and sadly, even things diametrically opposed to the Truth.

We are adrenaline junkies, pleasure addicts. We run from emotional high to emotional high because we are always looking for something to fill the space only God can fill. At the Cross Jesus accomplished salvation and the Holy Spirit sealed us for the day of redemption. The Spirit is now yearning to work it out in us. But we grieve the Spirit by condoning, celebrating, and coddling sin. It's a deathtrap cocktail of sinful rationalization and continual consumption. And we wonder why we do not crave the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God!? Our senses have been dulled. Our vision has been clouded.

The Living God is as great as ever and we run after other lovers. We live in the shallows and are strangely afraid to dive deep in the depths of God's grace in Christ. And so we are understandably miserable and left wanting. Like guests at a lavish feast that gorged themselves on junk food right before and have not the capacity to enjoy the sumptuous banquet. Repeated daily, our long term appetite becomes conditioned to love garbage and we find ourselves craving what we should detest. We walk around daily in a semi-drunken stupor, satisfied by nothing and unaware that true riches are right before us.

And then we realize we have forgotten the way home. Even though home is where we are. God has never left us. Jesus' promise to stay with us stands. He is faithful. And He is patient and kind. And the answer to our self-inflicted troubles will not be found in finding more exciting diversions. The answer is found in returning to God in prayer and the Word of His grace. Repentance. Granted by our gracious God and gladly embraced by the elect.

And what do we find there? What do we see to be true once we come to our senses and turn from our sins and once again start walking down the road to our Father? We realize that God did the turning of our hearts by His magnificent Grace. By His Spirit and through His Word God reminds us of what matters. We stay away to our peril and we engage to our delight. We find that God grows us in His grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's a beautifully strange journey. Cosmic and mundane. God's providence and blood, sweat, and tears; sovereign Grace working in and through the elect. A Holy God redeeming sinful man. A process for which we praise the glory of God's grace in Christ.

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