How do we make sense of a messed up world?
I think it is unanimous that people believe we are living in a messed up world! When the Wall Street Journal employs the headline “An Average Terror Sunday” (emphasis mine) above a story of attacks in Turkey and the Ivory Coast (Monday March 13, 2016 issue), “messed up” seems a reasonable conclusion.
My grandparents thought the world of my childhood was messed up. Most agreed the world was completely messed up in 1968 with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, riots occurring in Baltimore MD, Washington D.C., Wilmington DE, Louisville KY, and the violent protests in Chicago during the Democrat National Convention. Really, people in every generation in every region of the world could easily recite conditions of a messed up world. The world has been messed up since Adam fell, and it will remain so until Jesus, the second Adam, returns!
That is why Hebrews 12:1-2 is so very important. This scripture is also true for every generation in every region of the world. Since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, our aim should be to strip away everything that hinders us and run the race before us with great endurance. There are many points to be made about how we are to “strip off every weight,” how sin so often trips us when we allow it to remain, and how we may train to run with endurance. I believe the great point of the passage is to run with our eyes fixed on Jesus!
The object of our focus is VITAL. When I was in basketball camp in the summer of 1969, the late John Wooden coached us one afternoon on the exact point where our eyes should be focused when shooting the basketball. He was emphatic, it your eyes are anywhere else, you have very little chance of hitting the shot!
The same is true for us. If we keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, we will not be overwhelmed even by a messed up world. If we are looking at the messed up world, it is quite likely our actions and emotions will not shine God’s light into the darkness. If we ARE focused upon Jesus, God will use our lives to point people to His grace. The choice is ours!
Praying for more to be His,
Reggie Hundley
Executive Director
Mission Services Association, Inc.
the missions network
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