"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:2 - The Message Bible)
There are so many people who have lost their faith in God because they have conformed to the ways of this world. Few people have held onto their innocence and therefore can recognize what situations and circumstances to avoid in order to keep that innocence. Along with holding onto their innocence it helps them have faith in themselves and to not be ashamed of what they believe in.
People have little respect for each other these days. They cease to remember that other people besides themselves have feelings. Yes, everyone has the right to speak what they believe; express their own opinions. But every person also has the right to feel comfortable and safe. One of the most popular and offending jokes that I have been hearing a lot of are about women's rights and how the "women belong in the kitchen". The jokes greatly affect me, personally, because I feel that they are very degrading for women. These type of jokes, and even jokes that are belittling towards men, can easily rip our innocence from us. Someone who is constantly surrounded by disrespect can so easily conform and become the person who tells the jokes, or insults. I don't get how some men can be so judgmental and sexist against women, and visa versa. I feel that in order to stop this people need to start standing up for themselves and others more and express their opinions.
There's a song called We Are Broken by Paramore and it talks about, from my perspective, the new generation that we are living in and how we have lost our innocence and have become open and easily conformed into the ways of this "new world." I personally believe that this song is asking God to make our world a better place to live and that He would hold us and protect us from how this world wants us to think and act. This song reminds me that even though there are people out there who will try to remove our innocence, and break us down to nothing, God will always be right beside us and He will protect us from what this world will try and do to us.
Please comment and tell me your ideas or opinions on this topic :)
The first thing that came to my mind as I read this is a verse that I have had on my desktop for a couple of months now.
ReplyDeleteDon't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out... Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:2 MSG
I think you are right. Innocents is seen as weakness in this world, but God sees it as strength. We have lost the true meaning of this word, innocent. Free from moral wrong; without sin; pure. Not involving evil intent or motive. Unfortunately this world sees innocents as one being young and stupid, but I think that is just the lie that the enemy tells people. Because he knows that in our innocents we have strength. Strength in God. And it is that strength that the enemy fears, because it is that strength that gives us power over him. Therefore we should not become so well adjusted to our culture, because it will pull us away from God.
And that is my very long opinion on this topic :)