The rich fool and an eternal perspective
It seems like the parables we've been looking at lately keep coming back to similar themes.
Today there were a couple of questions to ponder...
What if today was my last, does that bring excitement or fear?
Are we comfortable Christians, living in a comfortable world, unwilling to take any real risks for the sake of the gospel?
One other main point today was that we deserve nothing... absolutely nothing. Everything that we have is by grace, and in the end when we face judgement day it will be unavoidably obvious that we have nothing to stand on but his grace alone.
ben
When you asked the question about if today (yesterday) was my last day to live, does that bring excitment or fear, the first emotion I had was sadness.
I wasted the whole afternoon picking up the house and cleaning up toys and junk and throwing things out. I totally did not spend the day with my husband or kids. I honkered down in the basement and actually made a bigger mess than it was before trying to sort through what to get rid of and what to keep.
My first emotion when I think about death is fear. But it's fear for my children. I really fear if my husband and I both die. Who will take care and raise our children in a godly way? I have one brother out in California who is not a Christian. My husband has 3 siblings in Kansas who are not Christians. And that really scares me the most. No one to take my kids and love them. Of course, I do have an uncle who claims that because I have that fear, I don't trust the Lord. But I think I can fear and still trust.
America is very rich. Even our poorest of poor are richer than other countries. What we consider needs are really luxaries (cell phones, cable TV, daily newspaper, cars, caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, etc.) It's hard when something has to be given up that you feel is a need, but really is a luxary.
And because of our comfortable lifestyle, I think we forget what we are called to do. We don't have to hide in basements and face execution for reading the bible. Instead we openly attend our church and wear our crosses around our neck and display our bumper stickers on our cars proclaiming our Christianity.
But if push came to shove, would I really risk my life for the gospel? The same life that I just said needed to provide my children with a Christian upbringing? The same life that I wasted in the basement cleaning it up for no one but myself? Man, I hope so.
And judgment day, boy I sure don't want my garbage brought up. The Ted Haggerd situation is extremely painful for me to hear about. We have what appears to be a godly man leading a mega-church and the Evangelical community who has fallen - hard. It saddens me because I know that some day I will fall before my creator and all my sins will be exposed and I am not looking forward to hearing about all the ugly, unclean, disgraceful things I have done. And I certainly wouldn't want anyone else to hear about them.
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I think about one family I met in Mississippi. Good, faithful people who desire to be like Christ, they lost 13 homes -- 28 people left homeless and penniless, with not so much as a photograph to remind them of "the old life." The oldest, Lillian at 87, the youngest just six months old, her daddy left her mother after the storm because homlessness was too much for a now unemployed 22-year-old father. After hearing about their losses for an hour, "all" I could offer them was prayer and asked how they were with God through this experience. 50-year-old Carol said to me, "God is good. Our God is very good. He spared our lives and we're all together. We know Jesus and we have each other and that's all that matters."
I thought that was such a wonderful, faithful response to the tragedy, but they, and I, were missing something very important. Even in a tragedy that brought them to their knees, they had not gone deep enough. Just six weeks later, Carol's brother was dead at 48, a heart-attack victim who doctors said probably died from the stress of trying to be strong for his family. What now? Is their God less good, less right because Bob is dead? In the latest Email, they talk about losing hope and faith with an overwhelming sadness that makes me ache 1300 miles away. They haven't been able to maintain their perspective, to see God as eternally good no matter the cost.
I am hardly in a place to judge them. I don't know, if I had experienced what they have been through, that I would have weathered the first storm much less the fallout -- broken relationships, early, senseless deaths -- I just don't know...
I know "stuff is just stuff," but Ben's sermon reminded me there is a whole new perspective to think about. Even our earthly relationships are dust if we don't attach to them an eternal perspective. Even the most beautiful, loving earthly relationships mean little in the light of an eternity spent with our Jesus.
How hard, this call to be like Jesus. To be willing to lose everything, even those we love, and still proclaim that God is good, his love endures forever. Amen, amen, amen!!!!! (Comment this)
So I went home and looked at my budget trying to see what I could squeeze or stop doing so that I could afford what I wanted. There’s not much wiggle room.
I understand that it’s not bad to have stuff or want stuff. I’d like to pat myself on the back and say that I came to the conclusion that I didn’t need the flashy computer or car because of some sort of humanitarian epiphany I had before hearing this sermon but that’s hardly the case. I still really wouldn’t mind having that car. And the computer would come in handy.
Hearing that verse from Proverbs left me very heart-heavy. How much time I consumed this past week figuring out whether those things could fit in my life? I had considered decreasing donations to charities I support. I’ve already become un-intentional with my giving to church. It’s so easy to jump there. It’s the things that don’t directly affect me or do they?
Do the things I have bring me further away from God? Do I really need those things?
I’ve been a Lutheran my entire life. But somehow I’ve always looked at mission work as something someone had to “give up” their entire life to go pursue in some third world country or <gasp> the inner city and THEY were the people who were missionaries. They came to our church and told their stories and they surely are blessed.
I also think it’s complicatedly easy to just understand the simplicity of grace and maybe I’m fearful of connecting it to any heart or action. You can’t do anything to earn it. No awards or accolades are following you to heaven so why ever would you do anything extra to help connect others to God or serve each other?
Maybe that’s what you meant by providing for a child’s needs but overlooking their spiritual well-being. I’m not a parent but I have friends that I care for whose well-being I’m not sure about. I know and love them, why wouldn't I want them to know and love God too?
So, preach it pastor. I know God’s working to explain this. I just need to be more open to understand.
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I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take.
Just thought that was cool.
I've had moments to think about death and think more about those I'd leave behind or all the things I never did than about what lies ahead. Jump to risking my life to even read the Bible or pursue God publicly and considering how wishy-washy I tend to be about worrying about what others think about me in a free society, I honestly wonder if I would be so bold in a more strict society. I am comfortable. Never really felt the urge to do something about that before?
It is sad what's been going on in the news and how public it has gotten. (Comment this)
Tonight's Studio 60 was pretty much entirely about the whole play about being vocal or not and culture challenging those issues. (Okay maybe it was merely about some guy getting arrested and John Goodman really playing up the Doc Hollywood stereotypical small town judge.)
However it all stemmed from the idea that the main character Harriet - a highly visibly vocally Christian said something again about Gays and the Bible and the idea of "judge not least you shall be judged". There also was this interesting dialog between Harriet and former flame Matthew Perry's character who I guess they are characterizing as a person who doesn't believe - about conversations about God and difference in perspective/opinion.
I don't know why I'm so fascinated by this idea because if anything I should be more sad about the fact that being a vocal christian is merely a "token" character instead of the norm.
I've read in the entertainment columns that this show isn't doing too well ratings wise however I find it refreshing (much like Sorkin's early years on West Wing)even if by being somewhat blasphemus they are getting the issue out there. It will be interesting to see where they take these sorts of characters and storylines and see what if any impact they make? How do you reach an indifferent public? And is pushing the line merely erroding or making people more indifferent in a been there done that way?
Am I becoming indifferent to the issues of the day because at some point I've seen too much or heard too much about the depravity that it almost becomes wallpaper?
And ultimately - what will that indifference cost any of us? (Comment this)