The Rich Man

Tonight I heard somebody talking about a mission trip to a third world country. She made an observation that I have heard many times. Something along the lines of, 'these people had so little, but their hearts were so good and kind.' I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It really seems to reflect, once again, the comment that Jesus made about the rich man (mark10:23).

It's funny, when this recession hit, I heard several preachers pointing out that you, me, and everyone we know, regardless of how poor we might be, are some of the wealthiest people in the world as far as money and resources go. Even with that knowledge though, there's this strange disconnect that happens when we go on to read that verse. It seems for most of us, regardless of how wealthy we are, we read that story and relate it to some guy we saw driving a Bentley down Park Avenue. We think, 'man, rich guys have a hard time letting go of things... but that's him, not me.'

I'm not condemning wealth. What I am saying is that perhaps a lot of this stuff in our lives does more to distract us from God than it does to enhance our lives. The reason for this is probably because our unconscious self centeredness brings us to use these things to do just that... enhance OUR lives. In reality, I think we would be better served (and better to serve) if we used these things to enhance the lives of others. Maybe many of these things that we acquire and then proclaim, "God has blessed me with (blank)" are really just tools for us to bless others.

I think I'm getting that realization that my life resembles a house. Within that house is a wall filled with golden trophies given to me by God. Only now I'm starting to think that maybe what I thought were trophies are really serving cups. Maybe I could be using them to give water to all those thirsty people that I've never invited into my house. I bet I could even go out to them.