Entangled in this life....

The Bible speaks in many, many places about wars, and compares the Christian walk and lifestyle to that of a soldier, going to battle daily.

Something struck me the other day, and had remained on me….

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. - 2 Timothy 2:3-4, KJV

Isn’t that picturesque? Can you just imagine someone being “tangled” in the affairs of this life? Can you just see the living vines and creepers in a jungle, and they have some poor soul in their grasp, slowly tightening like the grip of some terrible constricting snake?

It’s very appropriate when you talk of the world in this manner. I do feel that we as Christians do get tangled in the things of this world too often. That being said, how many times do we truly take that to heart? Do we ever really seek to become untangled from the things of this life that demand our attention? I know that I, for one, have become ensnared by many things… hobbies can turn into obsessions, television shows can become “must see”, slowly the time in our life is taken up until there is not enough time for the things of God. Like a sponge, the things of life will demand every drop of spare time we have, until family is dry, church is dry, spirituality is dry, and we are still left unfulfilled.

I have had a number of hobbies in the past few years… at one time I was over-enamored with my car, and joined an online forum for owners, spending enough time there that I was asked to become a moderator for the site. What a stupid hobby! Making a Honda Civic go faster and look nicer. I never got my heart really into it, but I was entangled in it. I had become so entangled that I was given responsibilities, and I couldn’t let those go… then I was reminded of the words of Jesus:

And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. –Matthew 8:21-22 KJV

Those that don’t have the call on their lives can tend to it.

The phrase “Pick your battles” is a very common cliché`, but it becomes very true here. There are battles everywhere in life. You need to pick what battles you intend to fight as a Christian. If you want to battle abortion and other evils, and try to legislate righteousness then do that. You should pick your battles… pick what you will put your resources and time into.

Just as a tree needs to be pruned to grow in the direction it needs to grow, to produce the most fruit, we as Christians need to be pruned, so that we will produce the most fruit. The tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is “hewn down and cast in the fire”. If we desire to “please him that has chosen us to be a soldier”, then we must not entangle ourselves with many of the extraneous affairs of this life.