“And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Luke 12:16-21 [NIV]
To this man, what mattered most probably went in the following order: -
· Harvest large crop
· Build bigger barns
· Achieve financial security
· Eat
· Drink
· Be merry
· Remember not to die
With the last one being the most difficult. As we said yesterday, it all goes back in the box. The object of life, according to Jesus, is breathtakingly simple – be rich towards God, rather than material things. When the game is over, all that will matter is God’s assessment of our lives. These things include:
· Growing a soul that is healthy and good
· Loving and enjoying the people around you
· Learning about our gifts and passions and using them for God’s purpose
· Being generous with our stuff, money, possessions and time.
Today, can I encourage you to think about these things, and how they fit into your life? The challenge I face daily is being ‘God centric’ rather than ‘me centric’ and I make a pretty poor go of it. With God’s help and the 4 points above, it gives us a reason to live in God’s world.
