If I were I to create a list of people who live from the outside in, it would include people who don’t know what their political beliefs for the day or week are until they turn on their favorite cable station.
They don’t know what books they want to read until Oprah tells them. They don’t know how to decorate for Christmas until Martha Stewart directs them.
They don’t know what to believe about COVID-19 and their faith until their pastor tells them. They don’t know how to respond to the controversial issues of the day until they check their emails and social media.
People with this pattern of behavior are like submarines cruising through life at periscope depth. They will not come to the surface until they have surveyed the surrounding territory, making sure that their emergence will occur within optimal conditions for safety from others they perceive to be potentially menacing critics.
Living life from the outside in — We have all been there at one point or another in our journey through life. And when we are accurately so described, we are the same folks Jesus had in mind when he talked about people who have gained the whole world, but forfeited their lives and even their souls.
We’ve gotten it backwards, Jesus says. Instead, turn matters inside out and live from the inside out. There is hardly a time in history when living from the inside out is more difficult to do than now.
Thanks to Robert Noblett for these ideas.
Do YOU find yourself living from the outside in or from the inside out? Why do you say that!
LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS LIKE AN UNSHARPENED PENCIL — IT HAS NO POINT!
