Surrender

It's become a trend with society today to live our lives in the shadows. We live, complacently, in the shadow of those around us, unintentionally trying to hide parts of who we are. We find those around us who have done worse actions, or "graver sins," and we consider ourselves to be better than we truly are. It's become all too common to cast the shadow of other's mistakes and missteps over our own, to make our life choices not seem so bad. It's a way to trick ourselves into believing that we will be saved, regardless of how we live, so long as we don't sin as terribly as some others. 

The truth is, though, that we aren't going to be judged based on the sins of others, the lives of others, or the choices of others; we are going to be judged individually, based on our life, our sins, and our choices along the way. The only one we will be compared to, we need to realize, is Christ Himself. We can't spend our lives comparing ourselves to others in the world; the world is broken, lost, and saturated in sin and evil. If we base our belief in our goodness off of the evil of the world, we will never strive to be better. 

That's the problem with the world, in many ways. Everyone has a part of them that doesn't want to change. We settle in the complacency of life, and we become weighted by our sins. It is difficult to find the strength to lift that sin off of ourselves, give it to Christ, and change our ways--never looking back. Everyone simply wants to compare themselves to someone "worse" than they are, and therefore justify their actions, or sugarcoat them. But the reality is that sin is sin; regardless of what your sin is, it is still sin, the same as any other wicked thing we do or choice we make.

We need to recognize this, and allow God to change our hearts, open our eyes, and draw us nearer to Him. We don't want it to end up being too late, when we've had so many chances to give our lives entirely to Christ. It may not be easy to look at ourselves in the mirror and see everything wicked and evil that Christ sees, but in doing this, we will learn to see the potential that He sees too; we will be able to come into communion and communication with The Lord, and hear Him as He guides us through our lives. Through drawing closer to Him, riding ourselves of the sins that weigh us down, casting out our judgements of others and ourselves, and listening to His voice, we will finally see who we are truly meant to be. And it will be something beautiful, beyond comparison to anything we thought ourselves capable of. 

All we have to be willing to do is trust in Him, let go of our worldly possessions and desires, and surrender. Sadly, though, this is both the hardest, and the best, part.