Where is God?

Where is God in this world? We look around every day, and see more terrible things happening each and every day. Christians are being persecuted for their faith, innocent people are being sexually assaulted, people are dying because of terrorist attacks, people are getting sick and dying because of incurable diseases, people are living in fear because they do not know how long they have to live. They are in the midst of a war zone, and are unsure of what will happen to them. People lack food and clean water. Some people have not even heard about the one called "Jesus" who is our light and Salvation and who gave His life to forgive us of our sins. Some say that the world has gone crazy. Some say we are in the end times. Some believe that this is just the way the world works. But is it how God intends us to all live?

God calls us as Christians to something higher than this world has to offer. The world offers us this; fame, power, love, acceptance, and everything you could ever imagine. Funny thing about the world is that it does not tell you the cost of what you are getting. The world lies to you. They say you will be accepted, but only after you change all of these things. For any young girl reading this, you know what I mean. Just look at Seventeen magazine. They teach you to be skinny, wear certain clothes, do your hair a certain way, do your makeup like this, then you will be pretty and accepted by that boy you like, and even those popular girls. Young guys are told to hit the gym, lift weights, be strong and don't show emotion. They are taught to flirt with girls and treat them like their own personal trophy. They are told so many lies about themselves, taught that they need to be athletic, popular, involved in the party scene, and so on. All of these things are lies that are fed to us.

The cost for believing these lies? You lose yourself. You no longer see who you truly are and what you were made to do. You push aside your passions for something cheaper. You long for acceptance, fame, power, and love, so you do what the world tells you to do, believing you will get all of these things out of it. And so you do all these things the world encourages, only to find yourself empty, and lacking purpose.

How does this relate to my first paragraph? I mean, I went from talking about the madness this world is, to ranting about how the world tries to influence and change us. "Is there any correlation," you may ask. So glad you did.

At least part of the reason that the world is in the state is in today is because of how we have given in to the world and believed the lies it tells us. Christians have even fallen into this trap and have just gone along with what the world is saying, sometimes disagreeing, but not having enough nerve to stand up and try to stop it.

How can we make a difference? Well, we can stand up for our beliefs for one. We can learn to see ourselves in light of who we really are, and who God says we are, and be satisfied with ourselves. We can develop our relationship(s) with God and with others. We can volunteer and give back to others.

We can't change the world. But we can make an impact for the good, just by caring and loving others.

As Dr. Seuss said in "The Lorax"... "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not." 

What can you do to make your world a better place? What can you do to make your life a wonderful and meaningful life?