[ r a w ]

I don't know about you, but the world and all of its brokenness have a way of getting me down.  Innocent people being massacred in a movie theater (a movie that I was watching at the time it all happened).  Young girls being sold into prostitution because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The ever growing gap between the rich and the poor.  Dozens dead from a bad rainstorm in Asia.  The real issues, the things that matter seem to be constantly slid under the carpet and ignored; after all, it is more fun and much easier to hear about the upcoming olympic athletes and all of the great things that the presidential candidates have to offer.  But it seems that whenever I'm not thinking about the world, I'm focused on my own loneliness, which shrivels in comparison to those around the world who may be truly alone.  But, I blame it on the devil.  I've been casually flipping through and re-reading parts of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters and it is terrifying just how Screwtape tries to steal humanity away from Christ and His goodness.  The scary thing is that the devil is like that and I've seen his handiwork all over the world; this summer, it seems like making me feel completely alone is the task.  Scarily, it usually works.

For some reason, though (I suppose I don't really believe in coincidences, making it more of a God thing than anything else), today I thought it would be a good idea to flip through old sermon notes; there was no reason for it, I just wanted to.  As I was turning the pages of my journal, something that I had written down jumped out at me and I was reminded of one of Mark Driscoll's sermons that I had heard a while back in Seattle.  He said, in reference to fear and suffering, "They can take everything from you, but they cannot take your Jesus."  Things flew back into perspective. The world is going to continue to be broken - I can spend my life working for the Kingdom and making it a little bit of a better place, but things are going to continue to be terribly messed up until the beautiful day when Christ returns.  The devil can strip everything from me - my friends, my momentary happiness, all of it.  But you know what satan?  You can't take my Jesus.  And after all, He's really all that matters.  He is joy and peace and love and all that is good in life.  My Jesus can get me through, and no one can take my Heavenly Father from me.  How cool is that?