Remember that odd song whose refrain which ran something like this: " ... keep your eyes on the road and your hands one the wheel ... "? Sure the song was about a date that went rather oddly but when you think about your Christian walk, it is not so far off.
I wish that most men I knew were like Dutchman, as Godly a man as I have known in my lifetime, and yes I do know all of his stories, most of them included me ..... then we have through the years had to coach each other through all of life's past travails. And yet, he has an Achilles Heel, the desire for wealth - and there is never enough of it. He is not greedy, he is in fact the most generous man I have ever known outside of my Danish great-uncle! And wealth is a problem for him? Yeah, it is hard for him to find contentment because of this. He strives for success because he knows it will richly reward him. With 7 major patents under his belt, for example: the Erickson cell, your MS keyboard, and the latest just announced and demonstrated is a new way to recharge batteries virtually instantly and without a plug in! Plus various radar and lidar based patents too. An overachiever with an amazing brain.
I know for each of us it is something different. For Swedish Rocket Scientist, now at 60 years old and happily retired, his loss of contentment is over never having had the family he so longed for - but you have to go on a date first (painfully true)! He did find two women through the years, but since he is still drawn to women whom are repelled by him - that never happened. Now at the end of his life, he regrets having been a scientist and engineer, he wishes he had been a landscaper. I actively pray for him comfort and contentment.
Contentment? That illusive attribute, missing from virtually everyone's life - except for those whom strive to find it and then hold on to it.
It all begins with a decision you have to make and the line is drawn in the sand:
- Will you covet what the world has to offer
- Will you find contentment in Jesus
In order to make the second choice you have to be willing to recognize the difference between what is temporary in value and what is eternal in value. Easy, you say!
Except it isn't so much so.
For me it happened early in my life. I was 22, I had already made my fortune and that year I was to observe the life of someone whom truly loved God (probably more than me) and yet life was so vexing she was unable to barely keep her head above the water. It was obvious to me, she was going down. And I thought on this actually for only a week and through a ton of prayer. If God had blessed me, so unexpectedly, and with no reason for Him to have done so or to assume He would stop blessing me - then is it my DUTY to serve others with it? Hey, I worked hard, 80 and even 120 hours weeks at times. My mind raced at what was required to move computing forward from a laborious technology to something at the speed of light by comparison - and using old technology to do it. But, I was called to be a stranger in a strange land, I was called to be an ambassador. I KNEW my real success was not be found on Earth. But, I was raised as an old German - sink or swim, it was her duty to do so, not mine.
By Day 8, I had my answer from God: I would do something completely alien to my upbringing and culture, something so repugnant that my family would leave me for the next 30 years, but I was certain it was the right thing to do - save one solitary human being from her environment and set her free. Surprisingly to me, she became my best friend, that was not the point of my involvement with her.
All of us came into this world with nothing and each of us will leave this world only with what we have invested towards our eternal credit in Heaven. So what is of temporary value? Anything that we leave behind in this life! Pretty simple actually, but the world does have its allure.
I am a bit of a pack rat. Clutter is not my friend but "stuff" seems to cling to me. What of it is "must" haves to my way of thinking? Not very much. But, yes, there are a few items that do mean a great deal to me. Memories, bits of paper that came with honesty and love into my life, a hidden blog, whose posts I occasionally read to remind myself that there is more than just me. Yes, I can remember those people without "things" but the connection is precious to me through those bits of paper and that blog. Pictures and hand drawn cards from all of my children, photographs of when special people thought I was special, a blog that expresses truth and emotion - yeah, temporal things. And my bits of paper are no different than Dutchman and his Mexican oasis from the world, or any of his other many homes. His are just more costly than mine but still just as separating from where either of us are supposed to be in our relationship with God.
And now is the time to say, "Enough". Well, actually, any time is a good time to turn away from the world.
1 Timothy 6:6-8
In verse 8, we are told that we are GIVEN our food and clothing - the basics of our most basic needs. Can you truly be thankful for those two things? I mean really be thankful, to incorporate within yourself true gratitude for what you really need? Hard to do so in a culture where "most have plenty and those that do not - obviously are not working hard enough!" Yeah, I actually heard that said this past weekend by some very pious Christians - I suppose in their own minds, at lunch. They did not realize that sitting there was someone whom is denied the freedom to work ...
And I think back to that young Christian girl I met four decades ago. She loved God, she struggled hard, there was nothing to show for it except a drunken mother whom took it all and beat her children. Yeah, where was God for Gaelic Girl and her siblings? Where indeed?
Perhaps, God had to use someone she only had just met, whom discerned the situation and had been so abundantly blessed that God directed some of his blessings to her? And I have often thought on this bizarre time in my life. What was God doing, why did God do this, what was He thinking?!? It was not proper and completely opposed by my family. In essence, I was "ruining" someone else's luck. I was taking upon myself their ill luck. I was being foolish and make no mistake to this day my mother blames GG for destroying her son!
Yet, I can look back and see that without knowing it, I was making an investment in that account in Heaven, that was never even in my mind - I was simply moved with compassion for one of the few times in my life.
I went back into youth ministry because God had proved to me that my life was His, that the only thing in life of ANY value were people. Not to help them because I want a brownie point with God but that this is the only place where there is any true value. And I said, "okay God". Within a month my fortune was gone and I was thankful for it. (Anyone old enough to remember Black Monday?) I now understood what none of my friends still do not do, unfortunately.
And I found my complete contentment in Jesus. Do not even believe I had even a penny left after that 1987 crash! My businesses failed, I lost my office complexes, some truck stops here in America, my manufacturing plant, everything - gone. And I was to know hardship, and debt and yes even hunger. Where was Jesus? Standing right there beside me listening to my heart praise Him in my misery, because I redoubled my efforts at what He had told me to do and worked all the more with youth. The harder life became, the harder I shared, taught and learned.
I had to learn gratitude. I had to learn to be satisfied with what I had been given, I had to learn to be generous with what I was given. And then I found contentment one day, I realized that no matter the opposition, I would still thank God for my daily portion.
Contentment is all about the attitude of your heart, expressed in truth. And yes, I do desire this for you ...
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