Words from WW Blog

 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45-46)

I like “things.” Things that are cool and innovative, things that are shiny and are advertised on TV and Facebook, things in garage sales and department store display cases, things that I don’t have that are popular that i would probably just use once and stick in the closet.

I would say that most of us like “things”.

It seems like things have become a thing in our culture. Most of our days are spent focused on things, such as laptops, cellphones, apps, whatever moving vehicle we’re enclosed in, and what the price of an airline ticket to Europe cost. Ideas, concepts, and debatable positions have even become things.

I’d venture to say that “Things” have become the new god. People wrap their lives around them. I mean, Taylor Swift is an excellent musician, but the amount of money people were spending to see her do a concert…I mean, WOW! And the fervor of being there, the heightened emotions…it was the equivalent of a trip to a holy place. What am I saying…the emotions were more intense than a shrine visit!

We’ve become a culture that worships things and experiences and yawns at God. He doesn’t have the smoke, glitter, and hype of what our culture has been mesmerized by.

It’s not His fault. His people have done that to Him. We’ve become Puritans in church and passionate pursuers of “stuff” outside of church. The idea of entering into His Holy Presence has become so foreign to our existence that the implications are lost on us. We’re like clueless middle school students, faces buried into their cell phones.

For many of us, we’re stuck. We don’t know how to break the cycle of credit card debt, a never-ending schedule of kid’s athletic contests (and practices to get ready for the contests), the latest political debate between lunatics, and the “things” we’ve allowed to push God out of our schedules.

In fact, that last “thing” may have been more revealing than I intended it to be. We’ve begun to schedule God moments, instead of walking with God. We fit Him in on Sunday for an hour or so.

It’s interesting that Jesus uses a “thing” to represent the priceless nature of the kingdom of God. The pearl of great price was worth more than the combined value of everything else. Jesus indicates that the man who found it began a process of getting rid of (selling) all his other possessions and then buying the discovered pearl.

I’m a work in progress. I can’t imagine selling all of my stuff for one thing. I’m grappling with the commitment to my Creator that is so integrated into my life that I’m willing to part with all of the other stuff. My culture tells me I’m looney. My soul whispers to me that I’m onto something that is too important not to pay attention to. Perhaps I’m being nudged to consider what it is in my life that I worship and what, in my life, is just part of me?

What do you think?

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This entry was posted on July 30, 2023 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.