“this world”
I was just reading in Romans, when Paul says to no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I had a thought about this world we live in and what it means to conform to it. I mean, what does our world represent really. When it boils down to it the thing that makes “this world” different from the Kingdom of God is the contrast between “I will” and “not my will”. It all stems from self. It’s all about me and what I want and my desires…this is the world we live in. Jesus was the opposite of that. He said that the one who lays down His life for another show the greatest love. This is foreign in a world that is pretty much out for “number one” and whose pattern consists of being all about “me”. I believe this is the core of what it means to follow after Christ and it really reflects how much we fail at this simple, yet impossible goal… to lay down our lives for others. I don’t think a day goes by without us putting ourselves first in our priorities (at least a couple times a day I’m sure). This is why we need God’s grace so much, because we do fall short in this simplest of ways. But, when we look after the benefit of others before our own, or give up our time to help another, or take away our rigid plank to try to see clearer and possibly understand what someone else might see, despite their minute splinter, we begin walk along the path that Jesus walked. We must think differently in every area of our lives, because every area of our lives struggle with self. This is our daily call, our daily struggle and our daily glory; to renew our thinking and affect the world around us by living out such radical grace that they are convinced that you are from another planet. There is no law against this kind of love.
