I’m a Christian because God cares about what happens to me. There are two ways to think about yourself: You are nothing or you are something. Hear me out. These two philosophies are opposed to each other, and they each look different on the outside than they do on the inside. What did your mother always tell you? It’s what’s on the inside that matters.
The first, I’ll call the “philosophy of this world”. On the outside it tells you that you’re awesome. You might have seen the recent Apple commercial, about taking selfies with the iPhone X. Dubbed over the nice looking people are the words: “I am the greatest! I’m good looking, clean living, cultured, and modest. I’m so modest that I can admit my own fault. My fault is I don’t realize how great I really am!” The world says that on the outside, you’re the best.
However, on the inside it tells you that you are nothing. It says that all of your higher emotions such as love and happiness are caused by nothing more than biochemical reactions in your brain. It tells you that deep down there is nothing but loneliness, despair and death. Atheist Jerry Coyne says that: “Being an atheist means coming to grips with reality. And the reality is twofold. We’re going to die as individuals, and the whole of humanity, unless we find a way to colonize other planets, is going to go extinct.”
The outside of the world’s cupcake is frosted with beautiful awesomeness and cute self-loving sprinkles, and the inside of the cupcake is full of hopelessness, death, and extinction. This is nothing new though. The Apostle Paul tells us that if there is no resurrection from the dead then we should “..eat and drink for tomorrow we die!” 1 Corinthians 15:32. If there is no hope, then you should get what you can out of life, because that’s all you’ll ever get. The philosophy of the world tells us that while you are awesome, life is pointless.
On the flip side, the philosophy of God tells you that you are not awesome, you are sinful. Corruption is your natural state. Romans 5:12. However, life is not pointless. In God’s story you start with the ugly corrupted nature, and you end up being remade in glory. “..we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:52-53. Not only will we be made perfect when He returns, He begins the process of changing you now.
To God you are something, someone. Someone bought with a price of the life of the Son of God. Someone worth remaking into something new, not something to discard. Your cupcake may be ugly and dirty on the outside, like somebody dropped it in the mud. God remakes it into something beautiful on the inside and outside. Let Jesus crack open your cupcake. Inside He will place the glory of God, hope, and a future. What’s your cupcake filled with? Despair or hope? Do you care?
Resources
Chivers, Tom. 2015. I Asked Atheists How They Find Meaning In A Purposeless Universe. Buzzfeed.com. https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/when-i-was-a-child-i-spake-as-a-child?utm_term=.vh8qbe0aL2#.mcJJPZkxmY
iPhone X – Selfies on iPhone X. 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbFe6F48Uo
The Bible. New King James Version. 1982. Thomas Nelson.
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