August 5, 2007

Talk about a low blow. A certain man had finally made it to the top. He had more money than you could believe, and he was on top of the world. Then, wouldn't you know it, he up and died. Wealthy beyond belief and dead as a door nail. Bummer.

Jesus tells us this story in the context of a request made of Him that He felt was a question coming from greed. To the request He said, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed," He said; "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). And, once again, in telling a story Jesus gets us to thinking.

The man in Jesus story was engaged in three conversations, though he only knew about two of them. He was engaged in a conversation with his wealth that led him to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. He was engaged in a conversation with himself in which he concluded that he truly was fortunate to be so wealthy, so fortunate that it was time for him to "take life easy; eat, drink and be merry" (vs.19). Then he was engaged in a conversation with God, a conversation that had been put on hold in the midst of coming to the place in life where he could eat, drink and be merry. In the end the only conversation that really mattered was the one that had been put on hold.

Jesus' story leads us to see that when things of this life trump eternal things, we enter into very dangerous territory. When things of this life interfere with our conversation with God and distract us from living examined lives, we are on a collision course with outcomes for which we are totally unprepared, outcomes like dying and death.

Jesus says we are fools if we don't work into our self-talk and our plans the fact that we are going to die. We don't need to be overly preoccupied with it but we need to face it, and plan for it. Our stuff is temporary; our lives are forever.