A World without Hope

Do you ever have days where you are just struck by the depth of lostness and emptiness of the world?

Over the last couple of days, I have listened to a friend who confessed his regular drug use and a desire to try ecstacy now just to feel happy for awhile. This same friend honestly shared that he has no life purpose other than to aim for a "happy life" that he, like so many others, will not find apart from the Lord. I have heard more swearing and perverse conversation than I ever wanted to hear in a lifetime. I have felt the pangs of betrayal motivated by selfishness and a frantic grappling for control.

And in the midst of all this, I have wondered how I am called to be a witness to hope when I still see so much evilness in my own heart- my tendency toward complaining, the ease of my frustration, my lack of Christ-like love. Lord, have mercy. This child you have called to be your own needs you desperately.

A lost and wicked world awaits our entry into it today. We have been sent out as sheep among wolves. Let us be as innocent as doves and as shrewd as serpents. And just as we have nothing we can do to save ourselves, may we know that we have nothing we can do for those in the world except die to ourselves so that Christ might shine brightly and beckon many to the hope and life that He alone can give.