We live in a culture with lots of noise. There is always something vying for our attention. We’ve endured the noise created by COVID-19. With this virus, we’ve felt the loss of our heath and some all the way to death. We’ve felt the loss of community whether with our family, friends, or faith group. We’ve felt the loss of our income and any wealth we had stored up.
The noise from the recent tumultuous election cycle has been very loud. We have a new president who is in the process of changing things from the prior administration. And I don’t think the noise from the last administration is gone either. Just yesterday, I saw a large group by the roadside waving Trump flags and it’s March.
The noise from all the recent natural disasters has been prominent. Whether it’s the recent snow-maggedon here in Texas to the number of wildfires out west or the hurricanes to our south to the tornados in the south. We’ve been devastated and wrecked.
As a nation, we’ve lost our moral compass. The noise from the media and social media is overwhelming. For those who follow Christ, gird your loins. It’s time to take a stand for Jesus. I pray for my grandchildren and their children. They are going to have to stand for Jesus like I never had to.
All this noise in our culture is pulling our attention, our eyes, our focus off the one thing that matters and that is Jesus Christ. He is and will always be our only hope for a better tomorrow and having a life to it’s fullest capacity.
Paul wants to reiterate that idea in his letter to the church in Colossae in the New Testament. Paul opens that letter describing an incredible Jesus to a church lost in the noise of their culture some 2000 years ago. They are not too different than we are. The Colossian Church had two groups. One group leaned into the magical and mysterious side of spiritualism. They loved Jesus but said there was also something more. It was an unknown knowledge and if you could tap into it, you’d be closer to God. The other group were legalist who said if you just say the right things, wear the right things, go to the right places, discipline your body a certain way, you’d have a connection to our Heavenly Father.
Paul tells them they are both wrong. The only thing they need to do is fix their eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of their faith. Paul describes Jesus as God and supreme over all things. There is no one and no thing greater than Jesus. He only will connect you to God the Father. He alone is who our focus is. No secret knowledge and no ascetic lifestyle will save you. It’s Jesus.
Paul goes on to tell us Jesus is creator and holds all things together. It’s Jesus creating all things. There is nothing above, on or under the earth that King Jesus has not touched. And because of that, he alone is holding together our fractured nation, our marriages, our kids, our health, our churches. Only Jesus can hold it and make it right again.
Jesus is also undefeated. There is no other things seen or unseen that can proclaim that. Jesus has conquered the grave and death. He’s already won the battles and the war. Because he is an overcomer, those of us found in him are also overcomers. Be conquering all things, Jesus also became our reconciler. It’s through Jesus that we are one with the Father. Jesus came to make things right. It’s at the foot of his cross that we know our brokenness can be healed.
And finally, the age old question, “What’s my purpose?” Jesus is your purpose. You can be awesome at sports, grind out the 9-5, be an wonderful parent but if you aren’t doing life to the glory of God, it’s all a waste. We were made by him and FOR him. My purpose is to lift up the Name of Jesus everyday in my life. Giving him glory in all I do and say.
So, don’t be distracted by our current culture. Don’t let the voices tell you one thing or another. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Let him cancel the noise around you so you focus on his saving, peaceful voice. Blessings on the journey.