The Lies of the World

The world will make you promises. Promises that say it can give you everything you want. Everything you think you need. It’ll fill your desires in small increments to build tolerance– making it easier to say yes to the next time the world tempts you.

The world makes you believe it has all the answers. All the solutions to your everyday problems. But in reality, the world can only ever give you an escape. A temporary time away.

What the world tells you is wrong. It feels so right in the moment, yet it never lasts.

Fleeting highs only to be met with excruciating lows.

I thought that’s what I wanted. I thought I wanted what the world could give me.

Attention. 

Escape.

I felt unworthy of the world. I didn’t fit the mold. But I wanted to pretend I did, if only for a night.

I embraced the desires that I knew I didn’t need. I wanted to explore an alternate version of myself- someone that existed at parties and danced the late-night hours away. I regretted not spending more of my youth with people my age doing the things people in their 20s often do. I thought I was missing out. I thought I was defective because I didn’t know the names of different alcoholic drinks or that I had never taken a shot.

I wanted to be like the world. And all the people in it.

But that’s where I was wrong. I believed a lie. For years, I believed that I could have and should have been someone else. Someone who sought the attention of men or found fun at drunken parties at 2 AM. I felt ashamed that I’d rather watch Netflix with my friends or make dinners with my family. I felt my preference for staying in over going out was wrong and looked down upon.

Another lie. Lies that led me to be separated from God, if only for a night.

I found myself in the center of a rave of drunk people, unlike myself in the middle of the night. Women around me with so little clothing on that they could barely constitute being clothed. And for a few hours, it felt good. It felt right. I even thought maybe I should do this more often. But that was just the shot I had taken earlier telling me I could become that person. It was easy. All I had to do was let go.

 

Let go of my morals. Let go of my values. Let go of everything that made me— me.

The world betrayed me. The promise of the highs sounded so appealing. Who could ever say no?

 

Then the next morning came. And I felt the lows– the small scripted side effects that the world often leaves off its false advertising. The escape of alcohol doesn’t have warning labels plastered all over the glass before you drink too much, telling you all the destruction it can do to your body if not taken in moderation. The loud music doesn’t say what will happen in the coming days if you indulge in too much.

 

The world doesn’t just fail to tell you about the damage and separation it can cause. It chooses not to. The world pleads innocent and leaves you feeling guilty.

I didn’t know that my ears could ring for long after just one night. I caused unneeded damage to my body unknowingly. I guess you can say I didn’t read the warning signs, but the fact is– there weren’t any.

The world doesn’t care who gets hurt. The devil only wins when he separates us from God.

 

The constant ringing in my ears reminds me of what it would be like to truly be separated from God. To be so lost to sin that it hurts. Falling so deeply in love with the world causes us to fall out of love with God. There is no relief in Hell. It’s non-stop and ever-lasting.

 

God doesn’t want us to be separated from his will for our lives. He doesn’t want us to believe the world’s lies or gamble our lives away for the false promises of the Devil.

1 John 2: 15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

 

To fall in love with the world is to deny God.

To deny His love.
His power.
His forgiveness.

We give it up for a lifetime of unfilled guarantees and fleeting euphoria. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll ask yourself, “Was it worth it?”

The sad reality is– most people will say yes.