Pierce: 10/10

Like Ju & Jacs said, I hope this isn’t the end :) And it was awesome seeing most of y'all recently & I'm very excited for the near future!

Errthing’s been swell lately but I must confess that it’s easy for me to fall into a dangerously lukewarm/jaded state of mind. Christianity can start to feel irrelevant for my everyday life when I get caught up in a monotonous routine of to-do lists or when I start loving the things of this world. In my rational mind, I can reason that my life purpose is to enjoy an exciting relationship with Christ & glorify Him in all areas of my life (including academics, career, relationships, daily interactions, personality, etc). However, my natural flesh is prone to indulge in self-centered and prideful lifestyles. Furthermore, the world declares to us that Christianity is total foolishness. After all, plenty of people that have no relationship with Jesus seem to have fine lives with lots of success and fun. Unfortunately, it's not too hard for me to subconsciously start believing these lies.

I often lose sight of the end goal and get discouraged in this race we're on. Thankfully, this week’s passages from Revelation helped jolt me to life again by reminding me of our ultimate destination: heaven with God. This was the joy Jesus looked towards to endure the cross (Hebrews 12:2) and the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). I think one of Satan’s top missions is to steal & destroy our joy in God. And I think it’s significant that David prayed so much for joy in his repentant Psalm 51: “Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice” (v. 8) & “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (v. 12). When my joy & emotions for Jesus start to diminish and I get lukewarm for whatever reason, I start getting messed up in all sorts of ways. I used to think it was cool (and even good) to not be an emotional person, but God's been showing me throughout the Bible that our feelings for Him are super important. Anyway, reading these last 2 chapters of Revelation gets me stoked for all the glory that is to come. Being with Jesus is gonna be infinitely amazing. And it's so important for us in this life to daily set our minds on the ultimate treasure of Jesus.

Here's a quote from C.S. Lewis that came to mind from Mere Christianity: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

Keep shining fam!