Picture this, like the room you are in is glowing. Everyone is filled with an energy, the very breath of life, given by God. We are all luminescent, glowing with this energy, the essence of life itself. And deeper inside, some of us are filled with a white light much like a torch of fire: life-giving Spirit, the very life that leads to eternal life in heavenly places with God.
Not all of us have this yet. But many of us who do are like stars shining in a dark place, piercing the darkness. Lights shining where people can see and uphold us as their example as we stand... and sometimes all we can do is stand, even in our weakest moments... and that life in us is a life-giving Spirit that draws other people and ignites them with eternal life, the very Life and Love of God.
Jesus was a controversial figure, loved by some, hated by others. He went out to the highways and the byways, lands of foreigners, and stopped on the street to show mercy to people in need. He stood in front of crowds and told stories. He was with us momentarily and then he was gone - and in His wake, He split time from B.C. to A.D. and showed us that God raises the dead to life, physically and spiritually.
So why do we settle for some replication of Life when the Source Himself is available to all who are open to Him? Why do we turn from Truth when it has the power to heal us? Why do we turn from Love when Love can transform us? Why do we turn from Life when it is our true meaning and everything we've longed for? To know God, our Daddy, our Creator and Lover of our Souls, our Guide, our Deliverer, our Protector, our Shelter in the Storms and the One who knows our every longing, and desires to fulfill us because He put those dreams there so He could show us His mercy and Love for us? Why do we turn from Him and fail to trust Him?
Right now the world is full of young people who are settling for anything they can get. It's like they are eating sand when they are craving water. Yet water is the most abundant resource, most available - why are they thirsty when the answer, what they need and crave, is right in front of them? Is it possible they can't see it? Is it possible their minds and hearts must be opened supernaturally through prayer... is it possible they are not seeing the connection: the reality of a true Christian walking the walk in the footsteps of Christ, so they can see the living reality of God's transforming Power at work in the life of someone they can relate to?
Have we fallen asleep? Have we closed our eyes to the need around us? Do we pray for our coworkers? Do we befriend the lost? Are we so concerned with the matters of daily life that we have forgotten why we are here? Or have we heard it so often that we have become deaf to the cries around us, so full we are bloated while others are starving within arm's reach? I am talking spiritually - people who have never known the Love of God. And if we tell them, and it falls on deaf ears, it's because we have not SHOWN them the Love of God. And we probably aren't praying for them - because prayer is powerful and God hears and answers the prayers of those with a heart after Him. Pray and do not give up - because the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Like a man who threw a banquet and none of his friends would come (they were too busy with the affairs of daily life) and the man filled his party with people from the streets.
I won't go on about society and culture... drugs, violence and crime. We can all watch the news and see it all around us: what a state our world is in. But let me challenge you. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. We once were lost and now are found. We know who we are and whose we are. We are eternally safe.
I would encourage you to look around you and reach out in Jesus' name to the people in your community. Pay attention to their needs, pray for them, be a listening ear and a true friend. And be open to what the Spirit of God may want to do in and through you.