“Inside, the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.”
Acts 19:32 (NLT)
Inside the amphitheater everybody was yelling, hollering, and shouting. But they were not in unity. They were all saying different things, and the noise was complete confusion. It was not helpful. It was not exciting. It was depressing. And it was so bad that most of them did not even know why they were there, what they were yelling about, why they were mad, who they were mad at, or what was going on.
I think it is easy to go through the motions, follow a routine, do what the world trains us to do, and end up in the same place as these confused people. We may be passionate and busy, but still not know why we are here on earth, what we are chasing, why we are angry, or who we are trying to keep up with. There is often lots of noise, but not a unified voice in our lives. And eventually the soul starts asking, “Is this really all life is about?”
The Lord showed me that this amphitheater is a picture of life without Jesus, or life with Jesus but without His Word. Apart from relationship with God through Jesus, there is no centralized, unified source of truth for us to follow. Without God’s Word and the Holy Spirit guiding us into understanding the Word, we are just winging it, hoping we reach our destination and hoping the confusion will subside. But hope is not a strategy. Having a living hope through relationship with Jesus Christ is. And that requires abiding in God’s Word.
So the challenge today is simple: are we going to join the world, shouting our own version of the truth in confusion? Or are we going to meet the Way, follow the Way, and abandon our way? When we meet Jesus, we finally know why we are here: to live in relationship with the God of heaven and earth. And as we follow Jesus together, He tunes us to the same sound, the same purpose, the same joy, and the same living hope, until our worship rises as one beautiful sound that glorifies our Heavenly Father.