One Foot Out

Almost two years ago, I attended a mother and daughter retreat with some wonderful people from my church. My mom and I were excited to go, and anxious to learn something new. We had read the description of the retreat online, and decided that it sounded like a great idea. We drove to Denver with some friends, excitedly speaking of what we were expecting out of the retreat. I often have expectations that never work out the way I had planned, and this is one of those times. We arrived for the first evening of lessons, and were sadly disappointed with what we saw. There were hundreds of teenage girls not even bothering to sit with their moms, even though it was supposed to be a mother/daughter event. This saddened both my mother and me, but we did realize that our relationship is not usual, so we didn’t think much more about it. When the speakers began to talk and tell about some very serious subjects, our hearts broke even more. The speakers may have said that they were passionate about spreading the love of God, but they seemed to make every subject easier to do nothing about. The speakers gave talks that centered a lot around worldly problems and they even gave some worldly answers. One of the speakers even used the Lord’s name in vain several times! They did several giveaways, and the screaming of hundreds of teen girls scrabbling to get the best prize was excruciatingly annoying. It was honestly hard to tell if it was a Christian conference or a mad house.

Although this experience was a long time ago, it still burdens my heart. I went to this conference hoping to learn more about Jesus and how to encourage a great relationship with my mom, but instead I got only eye-candy for the world. It was very hard to learn something from people who you definitely don’t want to be like! The girls there were not eager to learn about God, but only to get a cool prize or the latest CD. They seemed to have forgotten completely the reason for going to a conference about God, and the speakers seemed to have been disillusioned by the world’s charms.

I kept wondering throughout the whole conference if these people had never heard John 15:19? Had they never heard that we are supposed to be in the world but not of it? I was horrified that a Christian conference could be taken in by the world and Satan’s disguising tactics.

Jesus tells us that he has chosen us to be out of the world, not of it! This means that we must set ourselves apart from Satan’s worldly ploys that take in so many Christians every day. We must make a conscious choice to stay separate from the things that are so easy to make a part of our daily lives. It is not easy, but we will be rewarded for it.

It is interesting that we obviously have one foot here on earth for a short time, and yet we still have one foot in the heavens. God lets us reside on earth for any number of years no matter whether we live for Him or for ourselves. God could easily force us to serve Him, but He gives us that choice. God puts us here on earth so that we can bring glory to Him. Therefore, we must have one foot in the world (but not of it), and one foot in Heaven (but not of it until the day of our death). If we choose not to glorify God, then our eternal punishment with far outweigh the pleasure we may have experienced here on earth.

Although it is sad that so many people have two feet planted firmly into the world, we cannot sit idly by and do the same thing. We must get off our worldly cushions and glorify God through all that we have.