Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:5, NIV)
In the context of physics and social dynamics, we are nearly all aware of the so-called “butterfly effect.” It is the idea that when a butterfly flaps its delicate wings in one part of the world, events somewhere far away in time and space will be effected by that beautiful insect’s seemingly incidental actions.
On the youth soccer field, the butterfly effect is something else altogether. It is seen in the child who stands midfield, watching a butterfly go by while the game goes on around her. If it’s not an indicator that this child isn’t cut out for soccer, it at least hints that she is yet too young to appreciate its finer aspects.
In a like fashion, when I first began taking my youngest son to the golf course, he took great delight in getting his ball into the… bunker. It wasn’t so much that he was missing the point, just that he was choosing a different goal.
The same can be said for those who walk in this world without a care for its ways.
When a committed follower of Jesus reads 1 John 5:5, he may say to himself, “Well, of course I want to overcome the world. It is a place of interest in ungodly things, with activities that do not honor the Lord.” Such a believer would be one who is “without a care” for the world—that is, not caring for the things the world has to offer.
But what this believer may not recognize so well is that those who are living unredeemed lives also have no cares about the world, for they—like the butterfly-watching young soccer players—do not know that they should! They’re missing the fact entirely that the world is pulling them into something so insidiously void of God that their great goal should be to overcome it.
And there are others still who—like my young son on the golf course—know just what the world is offering in relation to God, and they’re choosing to go after the things of the world, deeming them no better or no worse than any other endeavor, including the pursuit of God.
When we recognize this stark difference between the way the Holy Spirit has transformed our thinking and the way our unchanged friends still think, we are actually in a good place. For from this recognition, we can move in prayer, in compassion, in evangelism, and in love.
“What has light to do with darkness?” Paul asked the Corinthians. Only this: Light is meant to shine where light is not. And you and I need to see ourselves as the light of Christ, strategic to shine where those in the darkness can see him.
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Jeff Hopper
December 10, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.