redemption.

The effects of sin run rampant through the rivers and tributaries of society.  Infiltrating even the farthest reaches of the world, evil is the motivator for nearly all that we do, and then we spend our careers trying our best to curb its effects.

We entertain ourselves with television that sometimes leads us to desire the lives and possessions of a character who isn't even real.  Then we use our credit cards (money we don't have) to buy those things, only to find that they don't make us happy.  We subsequently either become employed by the companies that produce and market said merchandise to equally envious people, repeating the cycle, or we work in the financial realm to make more money from what they have left, paying off their debt, but accumulating more and more money to satisfy greed and the selfish, worldly tendency to hoard.

Even the seemingly all-positive-and-helpful social services field is meant to lessen the effects of sin.  Social workers strive to make homes and families the safest environments possible, while doctors fix our bodies that get sick and broken (Amazing, however, that there are specialists for each and every part of the body.  It says a lot about the intricacy of our bodies and the omnipotence of our creator.  Another topic for another time...).  Counselors work to help us process and heal from events and people in our past and human resource departments intervene in inter-office conflict and help manage the relationships that shouldn't be broken in the first place.

All to "fix" the effects of sin in our world.

Oi.  Today as I drove from Green Bay back to Missouri, this is what kept going through my mind:  "Is my life really just meant to help curb the effects of sin?  Really?"

Each billboard I saw was either trying to get me to buy a product I don't need, go to a store nobody should ever go to, or watch a show/movie that assists is the dissolution of a biblical worldview.

Hope.

Messiah.

Redemption.

The Kingdom.

Shalom.

These words are what provide an ending to this cycle of misery.  God is here.  He isn't just coming in the future, but He is here now.  Christ came to bring life in abundance.

Rather than live in cycles of sin,
Live in light of the redemption that restores,
And help others to have that same wholeness that comes from an unmatched Savior.