Changing Perspective

The idea of living in, and not, of the world is challenging at its best. Personally, I fail continually as I have ideas that I want to pursue. Even idea that may be for spiritual reasons (such as a trip to Israel), they are still worldly in many ways. But it is largely a matter of perspective.

As I mentioned in my "Welcome" post, fotonni is simply the words in not of, turned around. Certainly, to live in this way, we need to turn our thinking around, and ultimately, work to turn the world around. But why? What is the purpose? Where does this all lead?

James wrote that to be friends with the world is to be against God. (James 1.4) So if we are indeed in the world but not to be friends with it, what should our mindset be? To me, it is about the Kingdom. Jesus said, the Kingdom of heaven is near. The model prayer has us pray for God's Kingdom to come and His reign to be on earth as He reigns in heaven. So how does translate to us?

Life is often compared to a game, but in reality it is more like a journey. Whether a game or a journey, there is an endpoint. Some games end quickly (Tic-Tac-Toe) whereas others are lengthy (Monopoly). The same is true with a journey. Some trips are short (to a local store), and others are lengthy and, perhaps, adventurous (a two week safari). A part of our challenge is that games, journeys, and life itself are full of unpredictable events. Yet, the objective is still to finish well. For the game, that likely includes winning. For a journey, that means reaching the destination, and  accomplishing the goal of the trip. For life, well, that can be more complicated.

For a Christian, the goal (or purpose) should be to become more like Christ. It is, after all, God's goal for us (Romans 8.29). The word Christian means a lot of things to a lot of people, but the earliest believers were asked to "Follow Me", and were called Followers of the Way. This is indeed "travel language", and why I will be looking at the idea of our JOURNEY in the coming posts. Ultimately, our objective is to be with God in His Kingdom, and thus we need to set our destination appropriately.