Psalm 119: 37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
Twisters. Hurricanes. Floods. Just a few things that get our attention as humans. These natural disasters come along and wreck our perfectly ordered worlds. Sometimes taking with them all the possessions we own. We were spared yesterday when a mini twister came roaring through our property. While we had some damage, it could have been so much worse. But it got me thinking…how attached am I to what I possess? Or, to take it a step further, how attached am I to the things that are not eternal? I find that a very tough question.
Could I live without my TV? My computer? My air-conditioning? Movies? Facebook? My dog? My Ipod? Questions that come to mind when a twister of any size comes roaring through your backyard. Of course, I could live without these things. But have they become more important to me than they should? Would I remain calm and kind if faced with the loss of these things?
Do I count all as loss compared to Christ? Sometimes we get so caught up in our lives that we forget what truly matters. Living for Jesus. Telling others about Him. Holding discussions with our kids about the things that matter. Praying for our families, friends, and pastors.
Instead we focus on the temporal things…sports, movies, the latest gadgets, facebook, X-box, boats, pets…I am just naming a few that quickly come to my mind. These things aren’t wrong in and of themselves. It is when they take too much of our time. It is when time spent on these things distracts us from our time with God or perhaps even hinders our relationship with God that they become problems.
We all know that life is about the mundane. Let’s face it, we all need to do the laundry, feed our families, mow the lawn, and clean the house. But keeping our priorities focused on the eternal will make a huge difference in our lives…even while working at the daily tasks we all need to do.
Philippians 3:8; Psalm 119: 36-37