Our lives should look different than the world

 The world is full of inspirational quotes about living your best life, dreaming big, following your wildest dreams because “we only have one big beautiful life to live”. 

These are things I’ve preached and lived by too. And yet, the more and more I soak my mind in the pages of scripture, there’s not a verse to support that way of living. We are called as christians to deny ourselves, to lay our lives down sacrificially, to serve others, to give of ourselves and to be less about us and to elevate Jesus above all. 

Mothers are told to live out their dreams (often away from their children) to be an example to them of what it looks like to follow their hearts. But what if God’s desire is that mothers instead live humbly, sacrificially, serving them steadfast in the home, discipling them by being a living example of what it looks like to deny themselves and follow wholeheartedly after Jesus? 

What if it’s not about us but about them? 

What if it’s not about us “living the dream” but about teaching them that the greatest dream is to walk with Jesus, boldly, unashamed, unapologetically, with passion and courage and conviction and holiness? 

What if this life is all a test of who is actually on the throne of our hearts and lives? 

Who are we actually bowing to? 

Is Jesus our true King (which fruit will be seen) or is He only in words but our actions scream otherwise because our pursuits and worries and cares are for the things of this world? 

Isn’t that what baptism is a picture of? Our old self dying in the waters of baptism and being raised anew in Christ, living as He lives? Shouldn’t our lives, as true followers of Jesus, look radically different than the world?

…Just some of the things on my mind from my walk this morning…