Skip to main content

What Good is it?

Have you ever experienced “Jet lag”? I have, once, on a trip to Israel.

Our plane left Toronto at 6 am and, after 14 hours in the air, we landed just outside Tel Aviv at around 8 am their time. I had not slept on the plane (I did not want to miss anything) and so when we got on the tour bus that morning I was tired!

One of my most vivid memories of that first day is simply trying to force my eyes open. As the bus rocked slowly back and forth down the road, the nice, warm sun shone in the window. To make matters worse, my friend Bill was sound asleep and snoring loudly. The first day of that trip was a bit of a blur for a while. It is hard to stay awake and alert when everything around you is encouraging you to relax and sleep through the important stuff.

Unfortunately, I sometimes find myself going through life as if I am sitting on that bus. I am on the journey of a lifetime and yet I can hardly stay awake. My days go by and I really do not know where I am going or why I am here. In other words, I sometimes just float along and do what everyone else does, because that is the easy thing to do.

Recently, though, I have received a couple of “wake up calls”, one of which is a verse that I cannot stop thinking about. Jesus asked, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 9:36).

Jesus warns us that it is entirely possible for someone to be a huge success in one sense and yet be living a life that is not worth living in God’s eyes.

I think it is time for me to wake up and make sure that I am living by God’s priorities. How about you?

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Noticing.... Seeing what we need to see and what we miss when we don't

 What we focus on in life matters. Here are some scriptural reminders that will help us see correctly.  https://youtu.be/Rn76tV0ZH8s    
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This.... Which Way Are You Leaning?

   When Ben Patterson agreed to join three friends climbing Mount Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite National Park, he did not realize what he was signing up for.  Early in the day, it became clear that he was completely unprepared for the task.  In an effort to keep up with his more experienced friends, Ben took a shortcut.  It did not occur to him that there might be a reason the others had not selected this route, but he soon found out why.  Ben became stuck on the glacier.  He could not move up, down or sideways and one wrong move would send him sliding down a forty-five-degree slope to the valley floor miles below.   That is when one of his friends came to the rescue. His buddy leaned over the edge and carved some footholds in the ice.  He told Ben to step to the first foothold and immediately swing his other foot to the second, then his buddy would pull him to safety.  Lastly, his friend gave him one more piece of advice....
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Twenty-three Descriptions of God (Psalm 145)

  Let’s play a quick game.  Take 10 seconds and list 5 or 6 words to describe God.  Got your words?  Good!   Here comes the game part.  I will list twenty-three ways that David describes God in Psalm 145, and we will see how many of his words match yours.   David says that God is, the king, great, majestic, wonderful, powerful, awesome, abundant in goodness, righteous, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, good to all, glorious, mighty, trustworthy, faithful, supporting, generous, providing, near, saving and watching.     How did you do? This is not a useless exercise.  The words we use to describe God not only indicate something about how we see him, but they also influence how we interact with him.  For example, if I know that God is “Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (verse 8), I will not fear him, and I will not assume that he is against me.  When I remember that...
Post a Comment
Read more