Recognize the Neighborhood?

Many of us are privileged to live in lovely areas of a beautiful city with a great country.  We feel relatively safe, can easily shop, enjoy nature, and have the needed amenities of life. Comfort, the good life.

But are we actually seeing what is there when we walk out the door or drive along the streets?  Have you in actuality been treading through garbage, slipping through lies that many believe without thinking? 

That's right.  Many aspects of life are not what they seem.  Hypocrisy rages, love has grown cold or self-centered, and the goods we so proudly wear are created under duress* or slowly killing us**.  And then there are the usual addictions to pollute the one thing we truly own, our own body.  Have you taken the darkness and dirt to be the norm?

There is a curious passage Jesus spoke to this point:

And that is 'highly' value!  The topic in question in that Bible passage was about wealth and being trustworthy in its handling.  But in our communities, it goes further than just valuing a lifestyle, a diet, a method, or a means to the 'good life.'  We stand by our opinions. We argue with others to prove our point, often allowing no dissent.   All this upset over what is, in the true meaning of the word, detestable--odious, repugnant, abhorrent.  Pretty strong terms for such things we fight all our lives to get or place upon the place of honor in our hearts.

But we cannot serve two masters! God knows our hearts.  The things we value so much are detestable.   Think of what you desire for your life. All of it is lumped together under 'detestable' IF it is valued above God.  Garbage. Disgusting.

And one thing is for sure.  You can't fool God.  He knows where your heart is, be it something on a clothes hanger, some persona represented in a film, or proclaimed as a new paradigm for social reform in social media.  It's your choice.  Choose well.

*https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/news-and-events/stories/are-clothes-you-are-wearing-free-child-labour_en

**https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/food-additives

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