On Being Average
Thought For The Week 151 By Val Warsop
I enjoy watching period dramas for relaxation; I love learning about fashions, lifestyles, and language from different eras. These days I find myself amused that dramas reflecting life in the 1950s/60s carry this description; everything depicted seems so normal and comfortable to one brought up in that era! I sometimes wonder what future generations will learn from history books [and period drama] about the early 21st century. What accomplishments, lifestyles, manners, fashions and so on, will young people chuckle over, question, or write off as old-fashioned? What will they think of the men and women who make up our world?
It’s a sad observation of the time in which we live that so many people are obsessed with celebrity lifestyles, wealth, fame, possessions, individual image, cosmetics, and a plethora of personal passions. There’s an emptiness in the heart that cannot be filled with ‘things’! We were created to live and walk in friendship with the Almighty, hand-crafted to be entirely comfortable in His company. Adam and Eve were never afraid of Him until they disobeyed; it’s sin that makes us uncomfortable in the divine presence. Humanity needs Yahweh more than anything else, and yet is uncomfortable in His presence.
Through Yahshua’s sacrifice we who believe are enabled to ‘come near to [the Father] with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith’. Hebrews 10:22 ERV]. Even so, I ask if the average believer of this era feels completely comfortable in Yahweh’s presence? Do my manners, my behaviour, my lifestyle, my speech reflect the fact that I live near to Him? Considering something similar, A. W. Tozer wrote, “…our actions, and especially our spontaneous utterances, reveal our true beliefs…If we are to judge by these, I think it can hardly be denied that the average Christian thinks of [Yahweh] as being at a safe distance, looking the other way!”
Are you ‘average’? Do you become tainted by the ‘must have’ philosophy of the ‘want it now’ generation? Tarnished by the playthings of this world? Or is your heart set on that wonderful, comfortable place of contentment, near to the heart of Yahweh – for which we were created?
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