“Now you're lookin' at a man that's gettin' kind-a mad I had lots of luck but it's all been bad
No matter how I struggle and strive
I’ll never get out of this world alive”-Hank Williams, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive
Hank Williams lived a short, sad life. He had money, fame, and was becoming a rising star in country music. But his addictions had a hold too great over his life. Yet, even as he struggled with depression, drinking and pills, He understood that this life wasn’t what it was supposed to be. And isn’t it funny, that as we focus on celebrities and their lives, marriages (how many they have!), court appearances (why are we so obsessed with it?), and examining their lives under a microscope, we see people just as miserable as us, though they have far more resources than we do. We look at someone with wealth or prominence and say “It must be nice” while, much of the time, they look at all their wealth and are empty. So why do we chase after all of these things, hoping to find happiness? As Hank said it, “I’ll never get out of this world alive.”
There is no hope in this world. None. We need to get used to that, and stop teaching our children that this world is full of hope, and joy and peace (they can see with their own eyes that it is not). When we live for ourselves, we live according to the flesh, we chase after what we want, and we don’t care who we have to run over to get it. And that’s what this world is about. Yet when I look at Jesus, the true source of peace, He didn’t put His hope in this world, he brought Hope with Him in to it! This world is full of broken hearts, broken promises, broken people, broken conditions. In Jesus there is hope and peace, joy and everlasting security, and a promise that this world is not all there is, and there is something far better just beyond the veil. Fix your eyes on Him, and what happens in this world will seem insignificant. Keep an eternal perspective, and you may bring someone else with you to His saving grace and presence. But there is no hope in this world, it’s full of death, despair and darkness. Hope only in Jesus. In Him is life and light and peace.
1 John 2:15-29
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
