The World Is Yours

While recently walking through a college town, the message on a student’s t-shirt caught my eye. It said: THE WORLD IS YOURS. 

Something about that really irritated me. So I wrote the words down to think through later. For more on this practice of not losing ideas in the moment, read my post Idea Wrangler. 

After more thought, I realized what bugged me was the arrogance of the statement. On the surface, it appeared extremely positive, albeit utterly naïve. A message of encouraging empowerment for all who read it: “Hey, you’re the center of the universe so do whatever you want.” But it doesn’t take long to realize if the world is exclusively yours but equally everyone else’s to do what they please, there’s a problem. If we’re all doing what we want, what happens when we all want different things? Scripture describes a time such as this:  In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. (Judges 17:6 NLT) Things didn’t go well then. Nor are they now. 

No matter how much we might want it to be true, the world isn’t ours. No matter what the girl’s t-shirt says, it just isn’t so…unless the words were meant for God. Then they would be spot on. Because this is God’s world.  

Psalm 24:1 says: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. (NLT) 

Come to think of it, maybe we should put that on a t-shirt.

Want More? Order your copy of The Eden Option here.