I used to enjoy window shopping. Sometimes I would wander the mall for hours looking longingly at the variety of merchandise. I would gaze on in awe of the clothing, technological gadgets, NBA sneakers, and the ever alluring double doozie chocolate chip cookies from the Cookie Co. kiosk. However, I stopped enjoying window shopping for two reasons: first, I realized it was too torturous to long for something I knew I either couldn’t or shouldn’t buy. Second, it became dangerous because often I found myself wanting something so intensely that I would buy it on impulse, regardless of whether I could afford it. I lacked self-control and I lacked contentment with the things I already owned. Many of us at some point have experienced both the torture and the danger of window shopping in this physical life, and yet how many times as Christians do we gaze into the window of the world with longing eyes, tortured inside from discontent with the spiritual blessings of Christ? How often do we find ourselves window shopping for the world?

Jesus says “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). When we commit our lives to serving Jesus, we cannot look back longingly at our old self. Our old self was being corrupted according to the lusts of deceit, but our new self has new goals. It seeks to please God because the new self has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph. 4:22-24). Those of us who have been baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ (Gal. 3:27). With such a beautiful garment of righteousness and purity, why would we ever long to be clothed with the potato sack the rest of the world is wearing? We used to wear that sack, and we found that it didn’t fully cover us. We were half naked and ashamed. We were cold in the winter and burned in the summer; Satan’s clothing was unbearable. Brethren let us not stand like fools at the window staring longingly at the raggedy potato sack because if we stare at it long enough we’ll eventually cave in and buy it, handing over our royal robes in exchange.

Jesus came to show us a better way, not simply a different, more difficult, way. He brought us from rags to riches. He did not intend for us to begrudge our service to Him while longing to be back in the world. Instead, He wants us to be filled and strengthened with His spirit in the inner man, so that He might dwell in our hearts in such a way that we might comprehend the depth and length of His love and be filled up to all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-19). If we’re going to look longingly on something, let us look longingly on fuller measures of things like love, righteousness, peace, and joy. Let us shop outside the window of Heaven, longing for the riches of Christ rather than the rags of Satan.

Brian Messerli