Pollution

Pollution
Did you ever take a good look at the pollution in this world? It is getting so bad that people in other countries wear face masks all of the time, and yet, continue to do what it is that contributes to pollution. We are surrounded by dust, pollen, pesticides, carbon monoxide, cattle dung and other pollutants that we breathe every day. The rise in asthma, respiratory disease and allergy issues are reaching all time highs.
Have you ever looked at pollution from a distance? As you enter into a place, you can see the dirt and filth hanging over the city like a thick fog. As you get closer to it, you can’t notice that the air is dark and filled with particles, because you are in it and there is no clean air to contrast it. It is easy to go along with our lives and never really notice that we are surrounded by pollution and that it may very well be the reason for much of our illness. We simply take pills, inhalers and treatments without question, to cover up the consequence of pollution.
As I drove into the unnamed town last weekend, I reflected on how dark and dirty the air was over that town. It dawned on me that sin is much the same way. It is easy to see sin when we are away from it. But as we enter into to it, slowly submersing ourselves into one form of sin or another, we may not even know that we are moving into the very sin that will cause us illness.
It is the same when we surround ourselves with people who are in sin. It is the same as when we surround ourselves with sin-filled movies, shows and music. It is the same when we have a heart that is filled with sinful thoughts, even when unexpressed. It is the same when we behave like sinners even a little bit, and tell ourselves just this once won’t hurt. We convince ourselves that we can remain unaffected by the consequence or natural progression of the sin surrounding us. Trust me, you can’t breathe in the sin of others, you can’t tarnish your mind with filth, you can’t accept the habits of a sinner and expect not to have a natural progression into darkness. Light is not where darkness resides. Whatever you fill your life with, is the natural order of it.
We can best see this with the affect our choices have on our children based on what we as a people accept as ‘normal’ these days. There used to be censorship on TV. Elvis couldn’t even be shown from the waist down because of his gyrating motions. No one would have dreamed of swearing. Married couples had to be shown in separate beds on TV. Respect, kindness, integrity, morals, values, God and wholesomeness reigned on the tube.
Look at our world: stripper clubs, porn shops, businesses with no ethics, a complete lack of morals, values and integrity, mass killings by teens, suicide rates, molestation of our children, drug addicts, abusive and homicidal parents, empty lonely people that promote sex and not love. Violence is glorified and God is driven out of our schools and politics. Do you see the natural consequence of this in the world? Do you see the misery and hatefulness and deceit and loneliness?
People, I love you enough to say, watch what air you breathe. Not just for you, but for your children and your children’s children. What you fill them with today, will be what they learn to be tomorrow. Don’t be in the pollution of this world, or give it credence by participating in it. Live in the light. Show them how to be in God’s light. Read the bible as a family, pray together, network with other Christians in the church and in your life, ask God for what you need and make Him the air you breathe.