What Matters (Part II)

So I was browsing some of my favorite websites this morning and came across the following article. It's sad how warped priorities can become.

Over the years, we've had plenty of cars on which we wanted our money back. Of course, all of them together wouldn't have added to a tune-up of one German businessman's automotive bane. Ferrari has refused to return the purchase price of a Ferrari 360 Stradale Challenge to the Berlin resident, who says the car is too slow. Outraged that his $200,000 supercar tops out at 175mph on the autobahn (and according to an independent expert), instead of the advertised 186mph, the man is taking Ferrari to court.

I love cars as much as the next guy, (maybe more depending on who the "next guy" is) but come on; "outraged" because of 11mph? The man was also quoted as saying "I could've bought a Porsche for much less and got this performance."

I wonder if this man knows or understands that Jesus died for him? I wonder if he knows that it's easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. That's not a literal needle's eye. This needle's eye refers to a small opening in the wall to the city that you had to come through if you arrived after the doors where shut. A camel would have to get down on it's knees to pass through, thus making it very difficult. Christ isn't saying it's "impossible" for rich men to inherit the kingdom, just that it's hard.

So often we tend to consider "things of this world" to be blessings. My favorite definition of a blessing is this: "Anything we've been given that draws us to a closer walk with Christ." By that definition riches and things of this world can be blessings if used correctly, but just the fact that they make life easier or mor comfortable does NOT make them blessings. Would your house be a blessing if you put it's care and upkeep before your walk with Christ? Would your job be a blessing if pursuing it meant compromising your Christian principles? I could go on and on, but we each know our own things in our lives that we call blessings, yet we so easily forget to use them to bring glory and honor to the Father.

Hold your blessings in an open palm recognizing always that we are but stewards and ALL things are our Fathers.