.depravity.

This week God has been focusing my heart on the depravity of man. He has been showing me just how easily mankind can fall into the dangerous trap of sin. And when it comes right down to it, He has shown me just how easily I can fall into the complacency of a life that is not fully dependent on Him.

I recently got hooked on the podcast Serial (yes, I know I’m a bit behind the trend here) and even found more podcasts to accompany that podcast. It gripped me immediately because of my inquisitive instincts and my amateur sleuthing skills. As I delved into the details of the case, I began to see just how wretched mankind is. Innocence or not aside of the man currently sitting in prison, the podcasts revealed the brokenness of the lives of all of those intimately involved in the case.

With all the hours I have listened to this case, to me it is still just another story. I understand that the facts are true, but I have never met these people, the timing of the events happened when I was only in grade school, and the location is a city that I have never even visited. At this point I almost view it like a crazy episode of CSI.

But tonight I was shown that the depravity of man is all around us.

As I was driving to a friend’s house for a fun movie night, I stopped at a red light at a busy intersection close to my destination. As I was sitting at the light I noticed some people standing outside of their cars two lanes over. My first instinct was that they were just walking to their destination. Next thing I know, one guy starts punching the other guy. They were throwing fists at each other left and right. One knocked the other one to the ground and they were wrestling in the middle of the road. At one point, they almost hit the car next to me and they almost landed right in front of my car. The light had turned green and I couldn’t drive for fear that I would hit one of them. More people climbed out of one of the cars, and my first thought was to get out of there for fear that one of the individuals could have a gun.

The whole incident shook me up and questions buzzed through my mind. How could an individual’s anger cause one to wrestle another individual in the middle of a busy intersection? Why was my first thought that someone possibly had a gun and was not afraid to use it?

God reminded me that our world is desperately broken and that I am not immune to the depravity.

Without God, fallen mankind is capable of producing immeasurable evil. With God, our brokenness begins to be pieced back together as we see our daily need for a Savior.

Only Jesus can mend the brokenness of the human nature. Only Jesus can save a wretched heart like mine. Only Jesus can take what has fallen and build it back up. Only Jesus.

Life can get us down sometimes and sin can blatantly rear its ugly head. But in those times, may the Lord remind us that He is fighting for us and that this world is not our home. We have this blessed assurance that He is greater, He is stronger, and He is better than anything this world throws at us.

May we begin to realize even more the urgency of the Gospel to a world that is trapped in its broken nature. May the depravity of mankind drive us to a strong dependency on Him. May we daily seek only Jesus.

Jesus, only Jesus.