June 26: UPSIDE DOWN (Acts 17)

(OK, so it's been a bit on these...)

"These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also..." (Acts 17:6).

Nobody says that anymore. Not "nobody," I guess, but certainly not many people would say that about most of us followers of Christ. Most of us live in a very "right-side up" kind of world. With the same right-side up as our neighbor who doesn't know Jesus; in the same right-side up car and toy; pursuing the same right-side up American dream; trusting in our same right-side up selves; with the same right-side up views on finances, leisure, freedom, control, and life.

We don't turn the world upside down anymore. We don't take opportunities that are right in front of us all the time, to march into peoples' everyday temples and proclaim the truth and mystery surrounding "the alter of an unknown God" that all people seek, though most settle for all kinds of idols.

We don't know the truth and study the Scriptures well: we've lost our urgency. We are worried about being mocked as "babblers": we're concerned with image/self-preservation. We miss out on opportunities to point a situation toward the spiritual: we don't look at life that way. And, beyond it all, we only desire the same proverbial "gold or silver or stone" that everyone around us does.

But the truth remains: "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (v.30-31).

Sounds kinda ominous, no? But it's real, and on that day - whenever it may come - all that will matter is "the God who made the world and everything in it... the Lord of heaven and earth."

Maybe I need to get back into the business of turning the world upside down.