Saturated but Empty

As I was sweeping up my thoughts on a recent article I read about ancient Athens I decided I would give the little AI prompt a chance to put in it's two cents worth on the above title. "Stuffed but Still Starving" is what Mr. AI contributed to my thoughts. That is such a descriptive analogy of our world today.

I was reminded of reading about Paul's first trip to Athens and the "stuffed but still starving" society of that day. As he was waiting on his friends to arrive he began strolling through the city. He was disturbed to see it was full of idols so he struck up conversations with anyone willing to talk. Paul was certainly in the right place to talk for, as it turned out, all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent much of their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Seemingly wisdom abounded in this city! Paul observed religion was abundant as well for there, in the midst of all the idols, was an altar dedicated "To an Unknown God". They wanted to make sure not to offend anyone, especially a god they may have overlooked, so provision was made amongst all the hub-bub and daily activities to take care of the matter. Mind you, they had no mandate to worship anything but, instinctively from deep within, a desire to worship something was always stirring in their spirits. After all of this time that is still the case today.

Sadly, we resemble those Athenians of long ago more than we realize. Our world is full of idols. From sports to work and stars to millionaires there are things we worship and lay our lives down for daily. Even in the religious circles we can find the idols and altars. Preachers with pizzaz, singers with swag and prophets with no end to their babble. We can pick and choose to our liking any combination or individual thing that wets our appetite, worship them when we choose as we choose and then move on to the next phase of life, giving a nod to that "unknown god" we're sure is there but are too busy to stop and find out about.

Or perhaps, also like those Athenians, you have heard of the God Paul preached about but have chosen to pass Him by. He's just another crutch some blithering fool is using as an excuse because he can't explain things any other way. Or maybe there's not enough time in your world to commit to another requirement but you will acknowledge His existence and nod your head to Him in passing just in case He's looking your way; however, the fact is that He is always looking. Paul put it pretty plainly by saying not only is He looking but He is actively participating in life as we know it and He "isn't served by human hands" as if He couldn't take care of Himself. This God has "made plenty of time and space for living" so we could seek after Him and actually find Him instead of just groping around in the dark. We live and move in Him. We can't get away from Him. In that day the Cretan philosopher Epimenides actually said "we are His offspring".

Truly, the Athenians were saturated with gods but were absolutely empty of any promise of life beyond time. Paul pointed them to the one, true God who created all men and marked out "their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands" and then he pointed out the urgent importance of getting to know this "unknown". In the past God had overlooked man's ignorance but now that He has sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to redeem man from ignorance's death He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the very one who died to redeem us.

You see, as the old saying goes, we really are living on borrowed time. I am not sure of tomorrow but I am sure that each of us will spend eternity somewhere, whether we believe it or not. The question is the same for us now as it was for the Athenians two thousand years ago...now that the "unknown" has been revealed to us what are we going to do with that knowledge? The book of Acts chapter 17 tells the whole story.

The clock is ticking.

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