Culture of Cannibalism

From the Tree of Life translation:

Now the deeds of the flesh are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, just as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom. Galatians 5:19-21 TLV

Now from The Message translation:

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom. Galatians 5:19-21 MSG

First, a confession: I included two translations because recently a dearly loved subscriber got snarky about my usage of The Message translation. This is my not so subtle jab back at him: do you understand now? Love ya!

I find myself more and more getting fed up with our culture, cause the culture of our world is the embodiment of the verses above, and it is creating a race of dead people. Everywhere I look and go, there they are, the walking dead staring at me with hungry eyes asking a question: “Can I feed off of you, and if so, what can I feed of?”. It’s at times sad, heartbreaking, and at others tiring and frustrating.

People either want to eat your money, your attention, your time, your resources, your energy, your compassion or empathy or understanding or whatever emotion they need from you to help them feel better about themselves. And it’s not them that I blame for this. It’s our culture. We inherited the seeds of it; we tilled it, fertilized and watered it, and now we harvest it daily. We have successfully grown a crop of instant gratification, and it never leaves anyone fully satisfied. Everyone is always hungry and feeling a lack of “fill in the blank”. Whole generations, who currently have more available to them than any other generation in memory, act as if they have nothing.

People come to believe that there is something they need, they see someone else with it, and then they feed off of those people, trying to get it. They end up fried, frustrated, lonely, and dead inside. Becoming cannibals, they believe they are ensuring their own survival, when all they are really doing is hastening their own end.

I know, cause I was one of them. Seven and half years ago I was deep in this crap and ready to check out, cause I realized nothing would ever be able to fill me. Then God threw cold water on my head, woke me to the fact of my victimhood, and ever since then He’s been cultivating a lifestyle of delayed gratification in me; in my heart, my mind, and my soul. It is becoming His greatest strength in me. Is it always fun? Heck no. Is it always rewarding? Eventually, yes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a work in progress. Will be till the day I die. As will you, even if you submit to Him, assuming you’ve yet to. As for those of you who have submitted, ask yourself if you still feed off of others, and who, where, when, and how. Ask Him. Don’t be afraid, it’s truly a question He wants us to ask. Needs us to. Cause if we aren’t willing to grow, give up on the culture shown in the above verses, well then how can you sleep peacefully at night, knowing that your comfort is coming at the expense of someone else?

Let us make an agreement right now. Let us agree to seek the courage to end instant gratification in our lives. Let us agree to root it out whenever we feel the Holy Spirit poke us and say “right there, that needs attention”, and then get to it.

I’m not asking us to embrace a hermit life style, or never order off Amazon simply because we can have it this afternoon. I’m asking us to invite Him in and give Him permission to show us where we’ve allowed this worldly spirit of “now” to gain a little too much ground. I promise, we will all be better off for it, and we will be much better present for those we love. Spiritual coverings, indeed.

The greatest gift I’ve received from all of this is the capacity to love again. If you read the verse above I hope you didn’t miss the remark about an “impotence to love or be loved”. I cannot express the absolute wonder I feel sometimes as I remember my loveless life before Jesus. Sometimes, with tears walking down my cheeks, I thank Him over and over and over again for the gift of being able to love, and be loved. And it is with sorrow that I remember that man, that boy, who lost his ability to love, and allowed the world and the enemy to convince him that he was unworthy of anyone elses. Thank you Jesus for this amazing gift. And thank You for the way You’ve taught me what love is, and what it looks like, and for the lessons of love that I’m still learning.

Hebrews 12 reminds us that God loves us, therefore He disciplines us. Not to crush us under it, but to uplift us through correction. To make us better. You cannot be present for others if you cannot love. You cannot receive both the easy and the harsh lessons from your Father, if you cannot love. You cannot bear the weight, if you cannot love. The entirety of it all is to see you love again, so that you can receive His love. And with each passing season, receive more and more. And then to see you pass it on, give it away, so He can fill you with more. Love is worth it, I promise you.

The world will need strong people who love strongly again one day. Most Christians believe that the world is on the downward slide towards Armageddon. Hell, they’re practically gleeful about it sometimes, shamefully so. I believe there’s more redemption to come before all that kicks off, and it will be men and women of loving character that will lead the next season or seasons of revival, healing, salvation. Jesus is raising them up as we speak, and you may be one of them.



So, fall to your knees, ask Jesus where you’ve erred, and ask Him for courage, strength, and the capacity and time to begin cultivating a life dedicated to delayed gratification where and when applicable. It’s a journey. It won’t happen overnight. Remember this. Remember love.

Be blessed, be strong…Jason.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. . All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

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