If you’re as old as I am, you probably remember when we sometimes had to look through a whole lot of “fuzz” to see what was on TV.
Back before satellite and cable, the quality of one’s TV picture was mostly determined by how close you lived to the station you were trying to watch.
We had only one local TV station in my hometown until 1965, so every other television signal had to travel about 70 miles to the antenna on our house. Some of those signals didn’t fare too well on that journey.
The advent of cable TV was wonderful. Who knew Little Joe Cartwright was actually so darn cute?
And that plain old cable seemed fine until high-definition TV came along a few years ago. Suddenly we could see every pore, wrinkle, line, whisker, and bead of sweat.
And now that I’m used to that kind of clarity, a fuzzy picture would drive me crazy.
As a matter of fact, I don’t like fuzzy at all—not on my TV and not in my life.
Unfortunately, we’re living in what seems like an increasingly “fuzzy” world, with shifting values and blurred lines.
But what I’ve come to realize is that while it might be fuzzy “out there,” it doesn’t have to be fuzzy “in here”—in my mind and heart. Not as long as I live within the safe, clear, unchanging boundaries God has lovingly drawn.
Old-fashioned? Outdated? Stifling?
That’s the lie going around.
But many of us, even many much younger than I, are navigating the choppy waters of this crazy world with amazing peace, stability and joy because we’ve experienced what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28)
We shouldn’t be surprised when man-made values shift. God isn’t. He said there’d be days like this.
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God …” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
Things aren’t spinning out of control; they’re falling into place. God is working out His plan, and we know how it all ends—He wins.
The lines for disciples of Jesus Christ aren’t fuzzy; they’re clear and unchanging, as they’ve always been for those who believe “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
If we’ll accept that (1) we’re not supposed to feel at home in this world, and (2) people who don’t care about God probably aren’t going to play by His rules, then maybe we Christians can channel our frustration into a determination to simply live our lives to please God.
The world will do what the world does, but nothing can keep us from …
… modeling marriage as God intended it to be—a man and a woman united as a living picture of Christ’s love for His church, displaying selflessness and faithfulness;
… honoring each human life, from the womb to the tomb, because each is made in the image of God;
… believing that Jesus Christ is Lord, and worshipping Him accordingly;
… doing all the good we can, for as many as we can, as often as we can, for as long as we can.
And nothing in this world can change God’s sure promise that those who believe in Christ are destined for a glorious kingdom, perfect in all the ways this current world so woefully isn’t.
You know, things really aren’t fuzzy at all when we stay close to the One sending the signals that matter.