The past few evenings, I have seen the most beautiful sunsets while driving home and all day today, I've been in the car driving home from visiting family. Although the drive through Kansas and Oklahoma is excruciatingly boring, today I've just been looking at the big blue sky and it's kept me happy. The sky is such a remarkable thing when you think about it, and it makes me feel so joyful to remember the fact that God could've made this world just okay-looking since it's only a temporary home, but instead He made it beautiful for us. As silly as it sounds, when I look at the sky it makes me think about how the same God that created that beauty also created me and everything and everyone I love and He loves me unconditionally.
Colossians 3:1-2 says it plain and simple: Set your heart on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things.
God gave us a beautiful world to live in, but He doesn't want us to be obsessed with it. I often find myself saying "I just love the world" because I love to find the beauty in everything, and I feel sort of weird for saying it because I know as a Christian one of my goals is to be in this world but not of it. I realized, however, that God loves the world because He loves his children. I love the world because I love the God who made it. I can totally appreciate the blessings God has given on Earth, but the goal is not to be wrapped up in earthly things like drama, materialism, hatefulness, vanity-- all of the things that are so common in today's world. Instead, the goal is to set my mind and heart on the kingdom of God and to try and live like that every day by being faithful and by sharing God's love with everyone. Colossians 3:12-14 says therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3 is my favorite because it gives some of the best advice Christians can get! It basically says hey, do this and don't do this and it makes everything make more sense.
The awesome thing about not worrying about worldly things (or remembering that you don't have to) is that if you get wrapped up in some drama or you get really upset over an earthly/material disappointment, you can take a step back and remind yourself that that isn't what matters. To me, setting your mind on things above is remembering that God's plans for you are way bigger than any material item, any conflict with another person, and any disappointment here on earth. God is also way cooler and more amazing than any temptation in the world. I'm definitely not perfect at this- I get caught up in material things (like shopping), I worry too much about things that don't truly matter, and I While this world is amazing and beautiful, it is full of sin and our job as these holy and dearly loved people is to try and stay away from the worldly sins and instead spread true joy and love that comes from God into this world.
Again, I love the quote that says "be in the world but not of it" because it means to be present, enjoy what God has blessed you with and thank Him for it every day but not to get wrapped up in the things that are completely trivial when compared to the Kingdom of God.
A favorite song of mine that totally goes with this theme is Blessings by Laura Story-- one of the best lines is "when friends betray us, when darkness seems to win we know that pain reminds our heart that this is not our home." The whole song talks about how sometimes trials of this life are God's mercies in disguise and the earthly things we face don't even matter compared to His love!
Here's the link to buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blessings/id429376000
And here it is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQan9L3yXjc
So, I encourage you to just look up every once in a while and see the beautiful endless sky that God made for you and remember that He made an even more endless Heaven to share with you, too. If you find yourself getting really angry at yourself or someone else or being disappointed in something, just remember that none of that matters as much as it seems to because the creator of the beautiful Universe created you too and He has plans to give you so much hope and a future where you aren't worried about anything earthly because you have eternal life and peace. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
Set your mind on things above, like God's love. Have a great day & remember you are so loved!
xo,
julzymarie