I Live in a World Obsessed With Looks...

I walk a very fine line with the things I am about to say yet, they are my personal convictions and this is my statement, my stand.

I live in a world that is obsessed with looks. There are so many ads about weight lost, perfect skin/hair/teeth, how to achieve the perfect look and I am surrounded with them daily in magazines, in books, in movies and on TV.

I live in a world that is obsessed about love. The kind of love shown on TV and sung in love songs, where you meet someone you find physically attractive and go on a few dates with them and then you “move on to the next one” or "fall in love" and get married and live happily until divorce or separation due to some minor incompatibility or the lost of that physical pull.

I live in a world obsessed with money. The biggest, best, newest things that money can buy. Living in luxury or living a comfortable life. Being at the top of the ladder. Being well off. Being in control of your finances. Being financially stable.

I live in a world obsessed with self.

I can obsess about my looks, I can dress fashionably or change my body to look a certain way, but what use is that when I die and the worms eat away the flesh? If I see my spiritual self now, how would it look? Would I be buff? Would I be healthy? God gave me this physical body and I should take care of it, and I want to be physically healthy and I want to live a physically healthy life, but I am convinced that if I cannot take care of my spiritual life with the same zeal as I want to take care of my physical self then it is all in vain. If I exercise every day but do not read the word and study the word every day, then what does it matter? I become a person who does not know what to do with the beauty that was sculptured, I become aimless. The physical that I created becomes useless to what really matters.

I can obsess about finding the perfect fit, the person that gives me all the goose bumps and butterflies or has the stable life and can support me. That can become my goal and I can be disappointed over and over again when no one fits that pedestal.

Love is patient and kind. It does not envy, does not boast and is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails. This is real love, if I cannot have this, then anything else is fake (a poor imitation) and I might as well just be an empty barrel tumbling down a hill making a racket.

I am convinced that if I cannot love my fellow man - if I cannot love myself - this way then I will never be truly satisfied when it comes to love. I am convinced that if a majority of my efforts is just focused on finding Mr. Right then I am missing out on the things that life has to offer right now.

I can obsess about my finances. I can try to get rich and say that I will give to the poor, but if I cannot give with the little I have now, how much more will I give when I have more? What use is it to build up treasures on earth that can be here today and gone tomorrow when my treasure chest in heaven is empty?

I suppose in the end my convictions is based on just one thing - eternity. Is what I am doing now useful for eternity? I am not saying that I shouldn't take care of myself, that I shouldn’t get married, that I shouldn't work, I am only saying that these should never overshadow the spiritual aspect of my life and that is, that Jesus died for me and has a purpose for my life and that I should really work hard towards that purpose because I do not know how much longer my place is secured on Earth.

In the end it comes down to me not being obsessed about self, if my affections can be set first on spiritual things, then these other things will fall into a happy medium that is just right for me.

Do you ever feel like the things of this world overshadow the spiritual aspect of your life? How do you keep things in an eternal perspective?