Recently
I spent time watching the O.J. Simpson story on ESPN. It is fascinating to me
to see the truth, or supposed truth, behind that story. I remember in high
school watching it unfold and wanting to believe O.J. was innocent. I wanted to
believe that these football players in the public eye were people who were good,
caring and so much more. Yet, as often happens with these types of stories, we
find out the guys are greedy and selfish instead. The saddest part is that they
run out of money toward the end of their life. How in the world could these
rich football players run out of money? How could they struggle financially after
having these enormous contracts?
Unfortunately,
our world and the commercials we see and hear give us a faulty picture of what
wealth is like. It is no wonder kids grow up with dreams of being rich.
Thankfully, in this day and age, we are more privy to the backstory of the
lives of people with wealth. Many times they are exposed for various sins or
struggles they find themselves in, and in several cases, we see them go broke
due to poor money management and a focus on all the stuff that makes for a good
outward appearance. How does this happen? Some of it has to do with athletes
and celebrities being so young when they begin making all this money, that they
don’t know how to manage it. Other times it is the addiction of getting new
stuff to fill their houses or their driveways.
In
the real world, we may not find ourselves in the same places as these people,
besides sharing a few wishes or dreams here and there. But we do find ourselves
trying to figure out what we should save, and when & how to be generous.
Recently,
I have had many conversations about retirement. If you think about it, there are a lot of
commercials about it. Culturally, there seems to be a drive to focus on
retirement, from the fun we want to have in retirement to the money we should
have saved in the bank. I am not sure what the balance is, but I am certainly
fearful of missing out on the life we are blessed with right now because of our
focus on retirement. And what about those that die tragically and completely
miss retirement, or those that suffer with disease and illness? Sometimes when
people do get to retirement, they are disappointed that it doesn’t live up to
their expectations.
Jesus
was hitting on all of this as He talked about greed in our lesson for today in
Luke 12. Greed can come at us from many different directions; it is not just
the famous athlete or celebrity that is going to struggle. The reality check
for us comes when we read about the guy in the parable that looks for the time where
he can just sit back and take it easy. Sound familiar?
God
has called us to be His extraordinary servants in our unique ways, and that never
quits, no matter what stage of life we are in. It may be readjusted or altered,
but there certainly is not a point when all our grain bins are full and we just
sit back and let life pass us by. Plus, why would we want that if God has
gifted us to serve Him? Jesus was teaching about a dangerous sin and helping us
to see how we can fall into it as well. But thanks to His grace, we are
forgiven, and through His teachings and the work of the Holy Spirit, we can get
molded and shaped to serve Him our whole lives.
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