Attempting to Create Paradise in a Broken World

When you woke up today, where did you look for value? Or put another way, what do you turn towards for your security? 

For many well-intentioned followers of Jesus, we have mistakenly built our houses on ground without a foundation. We read God’s word, we know all the right answers, yet we don’t really trust what God says about our worth is true. 

Practically, this can look like focusing too much on your net worth, your savings account, your retirement account, or job to provide that sense of security and stability. We go to church, do good deeds, maybe even lead a Bible study or volunteer on the media team; yet we ignore the warnings and lessons that Jesus wants us to understand about who we are. 

Jesus came to teach about a brand new Kingdom that was coming and that you and I get to be a part of, and what role we have inside of this Kingdom! 

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with tracking your net worth, building up savings for your future, or having a well paying job (in a few weeks I’ll discuss why you need to be building those up). But these temporal things were never designed to be a source of value, security, or even hope. To put your value in temporal things is to hope in what you cannot control and what is not guaranteed to you. 

One of my favorite authors says it this way, 

“When we live with eternity in view, we find an unshakeable hope for this sin-shattered world.”

Paul David Tripp

There is a difference between understanding our value conceptually and embracing it through our actions. Eternity is sometimes a thing that sounds nice to us, but doesn’t always have an impact on our daily lives. Much of our existence is a fleeting attempt to build a paradise in a broken world…

But Jesus says that it DOES make a difference for today, and everyday, leading up to eternity. 

So it is no wonder that when we wake up in the morning and feel frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, and exhausted… because the roots of our foundation are shallow and built on a sandy surface. We don’t trust Jesus when he says that we don’t have to prove our value to anyone. 

God desires for you to flourish today, here on earth. But in order to experience that here and now you need to get your priorities straight and stop chasing after things that will only slide straight through your fingers when you try to hold on to it for your security. 

Your Friend, 
Katie Jones