beatitude #6: what’s the most important thing in your life?
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” — David Foster Wallace
Every single person on earth has something that they find most important. They have a goal in life that drives them and motivates them to get up each morning. Whether it’s financial stability, a healthy family, or the approval of other people, every human being has something that they are pursuing.
Why is this important? Because, as the David Foster Wallace quote above shows, when we pursue what’s most important to us, it will always turn into worship. Our choice as human beings is not whether we will worship something, but rather what we will worship?
This quote shows the key difference between our secular culture’s approach to flourishing and Jesus’ approach. In Jesus’ sixth Beatitude, he teaches that if you want to flourish, you have to reject our secular culture’s view of what’s most important and instead adopt his counter-intuitive teaching.
part 1: the secular approach to flourishing
Our secular culture says that if you want to flourish, you need to make your flourishing the most important thing in your life. To do this, you have to prioritize your personal kingdom above everything else and make that the main thing that you pursue with your life.
In the secular approach, building a personal kingdom
big enough to meet all of your hopes and dreams and desires becomes the defining goal of our lives. Those who flourish, according to our culture, are the ones who have prioritized themselves and are the most committed to making sure they reach all of their personal, career, financial, and family goals.
Our society tells us the same story about everyone who achieves (i.e. flourishes), whether it’s Olympians, entrepreneurs, Ivy League students, CEOs, celebrities, or influencers: the reason they’re successful is because they wanted it more than everyone else.
This mythologizing develops a fear in young people that if you don’t go all-in on your personal kingdom project, then other people will get the flourishing that you want and you’ll be a failure, stuck in a dull and mediocre life.
Our culture tells you that you need to live your life in service to yourself, always asking: “What would be best for me?” Forget other people, we’re told; if you want to flourish, you need to make yourself the number one priority in your life.”
why do we approach life like this?
Why does our culture believe that the key to flourishing is prioritizing your flourishing? Because it assumes that the individual is the most important thing in all of society.
This all started in 1637 with a French philosopher named René Descartes. As Descartes searched for something that he could know with absolute certainty, he decided that because he was conscious of his thinking, his mind was his only foundation for certainty. He summarized this "discovery" with his now-famous phrase, "I think, therefore I am."
Why did this simple statement change our culture so much? Because it flipped how we define what is real. Before Descartes, Western culture generally assumed that God defined reality; you’re living in His world. But because of Descartes, the West increasingly rejected this view and came to believe that reality was defined by each individual's mind. Everyone else is living in your world.
This switch kicked off the modern world and turned our culture upside-down, resulting in three new beliefs that still dominate our lives today:
The individual is the center of the universe: the universe now revolves around each individual and their reality as they define it. This means that your needs, wants, and desires are the most important thing in the universe.
The individual is the ultimate authority: since you are the center of the universe, you are the ultimate authority of what truth is. What feels true to you is true. Only you can know what is right for you, and you know that by what feels right.
The individual should focus on what is best for them: the individual no longer exists to serve God and society, but rather to pursue their interests as they are served by God and society.
Because of this, individuals should only commit themselves to things or attach themselves to others when it benefits them.
While it took 350+ years, the individualism that Descartes introduced to the world eventually spread from the philosopher’s pen to every part of our day-to-day lives:
1637-1750s: Philosophers
1760s-1800s: Politicians, writers, poets, intellectual elites.
1900-1950s: artists and young people in New York City, Paris, etc.
1960s-80s: college students
1990s-present: everybody
The big shift in U.S. culture came in the 1960s and 70s when individualism went from an oddity of the elite to the underlying belief driving all of youth culture.
At that time, young people lived out what sociologists call Expressive Individualism, the idea that you find fulfillment in life by expressing your inner desires. The goal of young people then was to rebel against the khaki pants and white picket fence of traditional “Leave It To Beaver” culture in order to express their individual uniqueness.
But over the last 30 years, we have moved from Expressive Individualism to something that I call Obsessive Individualism. Today, the key to flourishing is no longer believed to be self-expression, but rather self-obsession.
This change happened because as young people of the 1960s and 70s got old, the counterculture became the culture. There’s no shock value left in expressing yourself. While it used to be rebellious to have long hair, wear colorful clothes, get tattoos, skateboard, surf, or smoke weed, now, those are all mainstream lifestyle choices.
Today, the central drive of young people is no longer rebellion against traditional culture, but rather a desire to find their place in a global society. Since everyone is expressing themselves, the best way to differentiate yourself today isn’t by standing out amongst your peers, but rather by rising above them. This is where Obsessive Individualism helps out.
so what is obsessive individualism?
The core belief of Obsessive Individualism is that to flourish, you need to obsess over your kingdom. You do this by:
Figuring out your inner passions and choosing your preferred subculture.
Obsessing over your kingdom until you outdo everyone around you.
These steps are best described by the two unofficial mottoes of Obsessive Individualism: “Do what you love!” and “Work hard, play hard!”
Obsessive individualism tells you that your personal journey towards a good life is the most important and compelling thing in the world. You are the lead actor in your personal movie, and the people around you are the supporting actors and extras, there to help advance your story and ensure you have the perfect Hollywood ending.
Obsessive Individualism rejects all authority outside of the individual as either antiquated or oppressive, teaching that the only moral rule is:
You are free to do whatever you want as long as it doesn't directly hurt other people.
That’s it. As long as you don’t think that you’re hurting anyone else, you are free to do whatever you want with your body, time, energy, and money.
Obsessive Individualism tells us that if you dedicate your life to your flourishing and outworking your peers, eventually you will have an easy, comfortable life where you never have to do anything hard, uncomfortable, or that you don’t love.
To flourish, you believe that you have to obsess over your kingdom, to meet the standards of success faster and better than your peers. You constantly feel the need to spend more time, energy, and resources on your kingdom, to ensure that you can keep up with your local, and thanks to the internet, global peers.
This causes you to approach everything transactionally, and only commit or attach yourself to people, jobs, or communities who promise to help you get where you want to go as fast as possible. Young people fear that if they don’t obsess over their flourishing, someone else will rise above them and get the life that they want.
so what does obsessive individualism look like?
So what does Obsessive Individualism look like in action? Well, first we follow our passions and choose a subculture that fits what we want out of life. Do you see yourself as a:
Corporate climber in Manhattan
Southern sweetheart in Nashville
Tattooed tech founder in Austin
Mommy blogger in Dallas
Climate change activist in Portland
Insta influencer in Los Angeles
Outdoorsy adventurer in Colorado
Eclectic epicurean in Europe
Simple suburbanite in the Midwest
While you probably don’t perfectly fit into one subculture, the leaders of each subculture uniquely define what a good and meaningful life looks like to them.
Once you’ve chosen your subculture, then it’s time to get work reaching the life goals of your subculture. Even though each subculture has different values, Obsessive Individualism shows up in surprisingly similar ways across our culture, causing you to:
Orient your life around working more and more so that you can increase your productivity and get more done, even though you complain about work.
Commit all of your time outside of work to filling your life with the most fun, relaxing, comfortable, or interesting experiences possible.
Obsess over your grades, not because you enjoy learning the material or the subject, but because you see them as the key to a good life.
Take picture after picture for social media, fussing over every detail of your appearance, all to make sure that you get one perfect picture to post online.
Skip any event, party, or opportunity that doesn't promise to give you a good return of investment on your precious weekend time.
Seek out new thought-leaders, podcasts, and books in order to help you level up and achieve more in your life, whether emotionally, spiritually, or mentally.
Spend a fortune on your wedding since no expense should be spared on the most important day of your life.
Create major life goals around things like traveling to all seven continents, seeing as many countries as possible, or visiting every national park.
Read countless parenting books, believing that if you can just choose the perfect system, you’ll raise well-adjusted kids who won’t need therapy as adults.
Go through life at hyper-speed, always trying to fit more and more in, until you go on vacation and show people how good you are at relaxing.
Want to go to church more often, but your lifestyle just doesn't allow it. You’re either coming back from a weekend away, running errands around town, or taking your kids to a sports tournament.
What’s the theme of all of these common behaviors? They all revolve around the belief that I am at the center of the universe and that by obsessing over every detail of my personal kingdom I will create the flourishing I desire.
but what's the problem with these things?
As you read through the list above, you might be wondering what’s wrong with those things? After all, aren’t work, family, hobbies, vacations, and new experiences good things that we’re supposed to enjoy?
There’s just one problem. Now that the individual is the center of the universe, we have taken the good things of life and have made them ultimate things. We’ve taken God’s gifts to us and turned them into idols, something we treasure above all else.
While Obsessive Individualism doesn't break our secular culture's main commandment (you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t think you’re hurting anyone), it does break God's first commandment: you shall have no other gods before me.
We turn something into an idol when we value it more than God. That thing, whether it’s our family or job or goal, becomes our reason for living, and we look to it for meaning and purpose. Idols capture our hearts, promising that if we pursue them above everything else, they will give us self-fulfillment and security.
As an example of this, I once had a friend who became obsessed with skiing. She told me: “I’ve finally realized that skiing is my passion,” she said. “I feel most alive when I’m in the mountains cutting through fresh powder.” Skiing quickly became the ultimate thing in her life, causing her to book multiple trips to the Swiss Alps every year, before she eventually decided to move to Utah so that she could ski as much as possible. She has taken a good thing and is making it the center of her life.
Because of sin, our hearts are constantly searching for idols, good and virtuous things to elevate above God. As John Calvin famously said: “The human heart is a factory of idols….every one of us, from our mother's womb, is an expert in inventing idols."
Our secular society pursues its idols as a way to experience flourishing without getting involved with God. Idols promise you fulfillment, but anytime you elevate something above God, trouble will result. Sure, when your kingdom is going well you’ll feel great, happy, and buzzy. But then when you experience a setback or loss you’ll feel like a failure and will hate yourself.
While it's much easier to see other people's idols, we usually have no clue what our idols even are. Why? Because according to Richard Rohr:
"Idols, like cultural myths, are always disguised, if not totally invisible to the worshipper. If we could see their falsity, we would, of course, know they are not God. So false gods, idols, must always dress up as a cultural virtue like success, love of country, or hard work. These loyalties, either hidden or expressed, must be exposed for the gods that they are. Until this happens, there will be nothing really new and God's dream cannot show itself.
So how do you know what your idols are? Jesus said that if you want to know what has captured your heart, look at what you treasure in your life. Ask yourself:
What do you daydream about when you’re alone?
What makes you say, "When I get ______, then I'll really be happy!"
What are you always scheming to try to get?
What makes you upset when it is threatened?
If you think through these questions, you’ll find that there’s something besides God that your heart is worshiping and is looking to for flourishing.
how does this play itself out in society?
The tricky part about Obsessive Individualism is that even though it dominates our lives, we all act as if we’re not self-obsessed. We learn to cover our self-interest by developing external motives to mask what our hearts are really after.
We hide behind performative morality, where we’re nice, friendly and act like we care about the lives of other people. We know how to tell people what they want to hear, while on the inside we’re constantly asking: how will this thing/person help me get where I want to go?
While politicians are the easiest example of this mismatch between internal and external motives (“I’m only running for office because I want to serve you!”), we all struggle with it. John Stott described it like this:
"Few of us live one life and live it in the open! We are tempted to wear a different mask and play a different role according to each occasion. This is not reality but play-acting, which is the essence of hypocrisy. Some people weave round themselves such a tissue of lies that they can no longer tell which part of them is real and which is make-believe."
We obsess on every part of our public self-presentation, hoping that we can convince other people that we are nice, good, and only motivated by a deep love of humanity, instead of a fixation with self. But deep down:
We talk about the value of community in our families, churches, and neighborhoods, but we pursue isolation and prioritize individual success.
We complain about all of the problems in the world, while we increasingly use our free time to pursue things that we find easy and enjoyable.
We fill our lives with optional activities and use them as an excuse for why we are too busy to do anything we don't want to do (i.e. doesn’t contribute to our kingdoms).
We congratulate ourselves on how much we sacrifice for others, but yet we only help them out of a collective self-interest…we need them to look good.
We may think that we’re getting away with our internal/external divide, but God sees what is going on. As Proverbs 16 says: "All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord." Even when we do something he wants, we too easily fall prey to what T.S. Eliot calls the last temptation: "To do the right thing for the wrong reason."
This difference between a person’s internal and external motives was Jesus' major problem with the religious leaders of his day. He called them hypocrites, saying:
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Outwardly, they followed every letter of the law, but inwardly, their hearts wanted nothing to do with God. Jesus described them in Matthew 15: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."
so why doesn't obsessive individualism lead to flourishing?
While everyone secretly believes that Obsessive Individualism will get them the flourishing that they want so badly, over the long run, it always backfires. Why? Because Obsessive Individualism causes us to:
Use people and things transactionally: We evaluate everything through the lens of cost-benefit, causing us to befriend and lavish attention on everyone who can help us, but exclude anyone who doesn’t promise to add value to our lives.
Become dishonest: we find creative ways to lie, cheat, and manipulate other people in order to get what we want. We stretch the truth, tell half-truths, and exaggerate in order to get whatever we have set our hearts on.
Become corrupt: we misuse institutional and political power to further our own interests rather than serving the common good.
Struggle with exhaustion: we pack our lives full of more and more things in hopes of exceeding our society’s expectations until we wilt from exhaustion.
Grow increasingly anxious: because the things we treasure are temporary and fragile, we are always worried that our personal kingdoms are going to fall apart.
Erupt in anger when our idols are threatened: we are generally nice people as long as other people help us get our idols. But the moment they prevent us from getting something we treasure, we erupt in anger and rage at them.
While Obsessive Individualism tells us that obsessing over yourself is fine as long as you don’t hurt others, these behaviors are just a few examples of how making yourself the center of the universe causes all kinds of societal breakdown, whether in our families, communities, or institutions.
Self-obsession causes the fabric of our culture to disintegrate, not because anyone is trying to destroy society, but rather because no one cares about anything other than that which would help themselves. We only have time, energy, or resources for the people, places, and things that will help us win at life. Everyone else is forgotten.
what is the root problem?
It shouldn't be surprising when we try to flourish by following our own self-interests, and not God's interests, because this is how Adam and Eve introduced sin in the world. When they were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit they didn't ask, "What does God want me to do?" but rather, "What would be best for me?”
Why? Because Adam and Eve’s hearts were divided: while outwardly they acted like they valued their relationship with God, in their heart of hearts, they idolized their own self-interests more. Then, after they sinned, they tried to hide the shame they felt when their inner motives were exposed by covering themselves with fig leaves.
This is why Jesus taught: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Ultimately, something has to have your ultimate allegiance, either your kingdom or God’s kingdom.
We all think we can hide this from God, but we can’t. Why? Because as the Bible says in 1st Samuel: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." He sees our mixed motives and knows that even though we look like there's nothing wrong with us, deep down, our lives are in rebellion against God: we want to flourish with ourselves as the center of the universe.
As human beings, we all idolize our own selfish interests and our own personal kingdoms. God’s trying to invite us into the flourishing life of his kingdom, but we won’t accept his gracious offer; we’re too obsessed with our own personal kingdom to have time for God’s kingdom.
We’re like the guests that were invited to the wedding feast in Jesus’ Parable of the Banquet. We’d like to come, but we unfortunately can’t. We’re too busy with our own lives. And so the guests turn down the invite to this incredible feast to focus on their:
Possessions: “I have bought a field, and must go and see it.”
Work: “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go examine them.”
Relationships: “I have just married a wife, and therefore cannot come.”
So many people are like the seed planted among the thorns in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower. They never formally reject God, but as they go through life their focus on Him gets choked out by the cares and riches and pleasure of life, causing them to never bear the fruit that creates a flourishing life.
This is a crucial problem for all of us. It’s not the "bad" things that keep us from God's kingdom, but rather the "good" things. We think we need more money and pleasure and possessions to flourish, so we chase them, but in doing so we lose our connection to God's kingdom and the true flourishing that he provides.
part 2: Jesus’ approach to flourishing
In his sixth Beatitude, Jesus challenges our obsessive self-interestedness and introduces a radical approach to flourishing. According to Jesus, a flourishing life doesn’t come about by obsessing over your own kingdom, but rather by becoming pure in heart:
Flourishing are the pure in heart, because they shall see God.
Like all of the Beatitudes, this one makes no sense. How will becoming pure in heart help us flourish? When most people hear pure in heart, they assume that Jesus is talking about some old-fashioned purity that’ll take all the fun out of life. We think of pure in heart the same way as H.L. Mencken described Puritanism, as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
But that's not what Jesus means by pure in heart. Instead, Jesus is telling us about his mission to win over our hearts and set us free from our self-obsession. And in a world that won’t believe in God without “proof,” he gives us the ultimate promise: the pure in heart will see God!
so what does Jesus mean by pure in heart?
To understand Jesus' challenge to Obsessive Individualism, we first have to understand what he means by the phrase "pure in heart." When we use heart today, we generally use it to refer to our deepest desires and feelings (i.e. follow your heart).
But to Jesus, the heart isn’t just your emotions, but rather who you are in your inner depths, where your thoughts, feelings, desires, character and motivations emerge from. Paul Tripp says that the Bible sees your heart as the “control center of your personhood” that drives you and shapes how you live. Proverbs 4:23 tells us that everything you do flows out of your heart, the core of who you are.
So what then does Jesus mean by pure? While pure can mean clean, Jesus isn’t referring to moral cleanness here. He’s using pure to mean unmixed or undivided, the same way we use it to describe pure gold. Pure gold has nothing mixed into it, and even if it falls into the mud and gets dirty it will still be pure.
Taken together, Jesus is saying that the pure in heart have stopped obsessing over their own kingdoms and have an all-in devotion towards God and his kingdom. They live for God and refuse to elevate any good thing into an ultimate thing. John Stott described the pure in heart as:
Single-minded, free from the tyranny of the divided self….their very heart--including their thoughts and motives--is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior, or base.
To the pure in heart, pursuing God isn’t just one of their desires, but rather their core desire that impacts every other part of their life. They seek to please God in whatever they do, even if it doesn’t make them popular or wealthy or powerful.
The key question for the pure in heart is no longer, “What can I get out of this?” but rather, “What would it look like to serve and honor God here?” This means that they treat everyone the same, regardless of whether someone can help them or not.
To be pure in heart is to put aside your idols and worship God above all else, serving him with your whole life and trusting him to provide what you need to flourish. Jesus is telling us: the flourishing life occurs when your heart is undivided and completely set on God.
so how do you become pure in heart?
In our culture, both religious and secular people try to become a better person by “doing the work” and cleaning their lives up through moral effort. We try to change our lives through behavior modification, using external pressure and willpower.
But no matter how hard you try, you can't purify your heart by changing your external behavior. No amount of self-development, self-meditation, or self-flagellation will affect wants going on in your heart. You may be able to suppress the idolatrous desires of your heart for a while, but the pressure will build and they will eventually explode into your life.
This is why Jesus isn’t after moral reformation, but rather inner transformation. Jesus didn’t come to earth to help us get our lives together through external efforts, but rather came to spiritually transform our lives from the inside-out. As C.S. Lewis wrote:
God is not out to make nicer people, but new people.
Nice people think that being a Christian is all about trying your best to obey all of Jesus' teachings that you agree with. But those who are following Jesus understand the sinfulness of their hearts and, in order to be pure in heart, they need a completely new heart.
So how do you become pure in heart? By following God as you:
Confess your sin: the first step to having a pure heart is admitting that you have an impure heart. Instead of repressing your impurities, you have to confess them to God and admit that your heart is chasing after everything but God. First John 1 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
You’ll never flourish until you admit that you have made your own kingdom the most important thing in your life and confess it to God.
Ask God for a new heart: When David had sinned against God by murdering Uriah and sleeping with Bathsheba, he asked God to work in him: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
David didn't ask for a podcast to explain to him how his childhood trauma caused him to sin, or a book to help him not make this mistake again. Instead, he went straight to God and cried out for help.
Let God work: In order to have a pure heart, you have to be spiritually regenerated by God. The Holy Spirit has to work in your heart so that your spiritually dead heart is made alive through Christ. God says in Ezekiel 36: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Through Christ, we are giving a new nature. We become dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Pursue purity: We aren't supposed to just sit back and watch God work, but we are to partner in this purification process as we pursue him and obey his commands. In the very next verse in Ezekiel, God says: I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
In Philippians 4, Paul shows us what this pursuit of purity looks like: "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
As we follow this process, confessing our sin and letting the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit work to revive and purify our hearts, we will be enabled to "love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind."
why do the pure in heart flourish?
Jesus says that the pure in heart flourish, not because they’ve created a giant kingdom on their own, but rather because as a result of life in God’s kingdom, they will see God.
Why do the pure in heart see God while no one else does? Because everyone else is too focused on their own kingdom to ever look for him. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."
So what does it mean to see God? Seeing God is both the most exciting and terrifying idea in human history. It's something that every human being since Adam and Eve has longed for: to be in the presence of the God of the universe and to experience a relationship with him. It's what God's people have been waiting for since the Old Testament, when Aaron blessed them by saying:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."
But yet the idea of seeing God is terrifying. How can we, those with impure hearts, ever see God? None of us are able to perfectly love God with all of our hearts, the requirement for being in God’s presence.
Psalm 24 tells us how:
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
Only someone with clean hands and a pure heart can stand in God’s presence. While Psalm 24 is in the Old Testament, it’s pointing us to Jesus, the only person to ever perfectly obey these commands. He lived a pure life and had his heart set on God and his kingdom his entire life.
When he died, he took on the impurity of our hearts and gave us the purity of his heart, so that we could be ushered into God’s presence, as shown through the temple curtain being torn into two. Unlike Jesus, your idols will never idol for you, but rather will insist that you die for them.
Then, when you are born again through faith in Jesus, you’ll no longer hide from God like Adam and Eve, but will relish the opportunity to be in God’s presence. You’ll no longer be ashamed of your internal life, because you know that even though God knows everything about you, he still loves you through and through.
Right now, the pure in heart see God through the eyes of faith; we see him work, providing, and guiding us through life. But this is just a small taste of what life will be like in the new heavens and new earth, where we will live in God’s presence for eternity. John describes it this way in Revelation 4:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb….no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they’ll reign forever and ever.
This is the ultimate picture of human flourishing. Face to face with the God of the universe in a perfect paradise, no longer under the curse of sin!
so why does this lead to flourishing?
But seeing God doesn't only result in a future flourishing. As we see God work in our lives and look forward to seeing him for eternity, a most important thing happens: what you worship changes, which influences every part of your life.
Seeing God frees you from tiny lives of self-interest, self-obsession, and self-worship, and reorients your life from obsessing over your personal kingdom to instead giving your life to him and his kingdom.
As the Holy Spirit works in your heart, skimming off the impurities and purifying your motives, your life will begin to change from the inside-out in ways that you could never expect. You will:
Stop using people and start serving them, because since they are made in God’s image, they have infinite and eternal value.
Spend time with all kinds of people, even if they don’t help you, because you love finding way to encourage their thriving.
Stop hoarding your time, energy, and resources and start giving them away because they are all gifts from God.
Be set free from worry, anxiety, and a constant busyness because you can now trust God to give you exactly what you need.
Be set free from being addicted to work, because your life is no longer a cosmic quest to accumulate treasure on earth but rather treasure in heaven.
The pure in heart realize that they are not their own, but rather have been bought with a price. Because of that, they aren’t free to do whatever they want with their lives, but rather are committed to setting their hearts completely on God and pursuing his will.
As Christians repent from their own kingdoms and use their lives to worship God and serve His kingdom, it creates a servant-hearted, others-centered society where people love their neighbor and contribute to the flourishing of all.
where do we get the power to be set free from our own kingdoms?
If you want to be set free from your own kingdom you have to let your heart be melted by what Jesus has done for you. Philippians 2 tells us:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
When Jesus came to earth to rescue you from a life of self-worship and self-obsession, he didn't do it because it was going to be easy or fun or help him live his best life, but rather because he loved us more than he loved himself.
And so when we see how Jesus emptied himself for our benefit, it should melt our hearts and see how we are called to do the same for others:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
We'll never flourish to the degree God intended until we recognize that our lives shouldn't revolve around our dreams, agenda, and desires, but rather God's will for our lives. When we do this, we're set free from a role we can't play and instead can use our lives the way we were meant to: to live face to face with the God of the universe.
I use “personal kingdom” as a general term for all of the things that you have in life, including your abilities, your career, your relationships, your resources, your possessions, etc. We all have a personal kingdom that we have control over and influence in.
Descartes wasn’t an atheist, but rather a French Catholic. I think it would be hard for him to understand how much his one idea had led to so much cultural change in our current day.
While I want to be charitable, so many people love to announce how much they care about some topic or group or society in general, but then there is never any action taken towards that. Jesus made it clear: if you want to know what’s going on inside a person, don’t listen to what they say, watch to see what fruit they bear.
