I would like to say I have never seen such dissipation, drunkenness and anxiety in my world as I do today, but that wouldn’t be totally true. What I will say is I have never been more aware of dissipation (indulgence, debauchery, and flakiness), drunkenness, and anxiety than I am today. People are loaded up with worries and weighed down with stuff and are looking for relief - any relief that is except God. And so they are drunk and self-indulgent. (Drunkenness includes drug-abuse in my mind.) People will do anything to kill the pain they feel, and so they do some of the weirdest things to try to kill it. Distractions from what is truly important are a dime a dozen these days.
The problem is the domino effect of being weighed down, then trying to kill the pain of being weighed down; which in turn leads to the futility of being more weighed down. Jesus warned them (and us) to be careful lest they/we be consumed in worry about things outside their/our control and then self-medicate (in whatever form that takes) to escape the worry and fear that’s apt to flood in when they/we give those things too much of their/our attention.
I think it boils simply down to this for that. When we weigh the weight of being weighed down against the weightlessness of being free, there’s no comparison. One is freedom – the other is burden. One is faith – that other, fear. One is peace – the other is turmoil. God asks us, begs us to not get caught up in the shell-game that the world and our culture play with our minds. Be careful, Jesus says, because the fix is in…
Father in Heaven,
How often You admonish us in Your word to beware of the lies and lure of this world. And You know our hearts and You know our weaknesses. Help me to be wise and to beware. I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.
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