It Changed My Perspective On Society

I was on the phone with a manager. I was asking him to absorb a fee I had inadvertently acquired and was asking he remove the fee. He argued with me absolutely refusing my request. I tried saying, nicely, that this really was unfair and hoped he’d help me with the problem. He was not budging in the least. In fact, he was a bit arrogant.

When I got off the phone I was SO angry. I went to the Lord about it and expressed why I was so angry and maybe he would help me calm down as he so often does.

But no. He answered me with six words that so astonished me that I was just stunned. What he said, perhaps someone reading this might not think it was such a big deal. But in the moment, it was to me.

He said,

“Let the world be the world.”

Well my jaw dropped! I just sat there stunned.

After thinking on that for days, I came to understand that there is a huge difference between the Kingdom of God and …”the world.” Had this been an argument with a fellow believer, the Lord most likely would have answered me differently. But as I thought on what he said, for weeks, for months, even till now, it opened my eyes to a deep revelation. The world cannot be anything other than the world. That’s just a fact.

Sometimes you might meet someone of “the world” who is kind and gentle. But behind that kindness and gentleness will lie some other characteristic of the world because we’re all born sinners, every one of us. Most people in the world will have pleasing ways, things they’ve learned while growing up. But not one of them will be exempt of whatever their manner of sin is, whether it’s something obvious or something hidden.

“Some men’s sins are clearly evident,
preceding them to judgment, but those of some follow later.”
1st Timothy 5:24

Since that day the Word he gave me constantly reminds me in uncomfortable circumstances to just “let the world be the world.” Accept that, expect nothing more, and your peace will come. It’s just so freeing.