“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
-Jesus Christ (Mt. 6:19-21)
Note: This piece was originally written in November 2008, in the throes of The Great Recession.
The challenging economic period that our country is currently experiencing is affecting almost every American in one way or another. Stock market declines and recessions are a normal part of the business cycle, but the more they affect us personally, the more severe these downturns seem to be.
I was recently speaking with a friend who has been very successful in his career. He shared with me that he had always been fearful of going backward financially, and the fear of going backward had now become a reality. I could sense that he felt a bit deceived in his pursuit of the good life, wondering if his efforts had been worth it. Even though my friend is a follower of Christ, he had allowed his financial success to give him a false sense of security.
Jesus spoke about the false sense of security that is brought on by prosperity in the story he told about four types of soil, and the seed (God’s message of love and forgiveness – the Good News, a.k.a. The Gospel) that fell among the soil: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times (Mark 4:3-8).”
Just after Jesus told this parable, the disciples asked Jesus to explain to them what it meant. Mark 4:18-19, records Jesus’ explanation of the seed that fell among thorns: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
This is where my friend is living – a believer with a defeated faith. This is one of the most common traps for those of us who live in the twenty-first century, here in the land of plenty. The things we hold so dearly, subtly form a noose that chokes us, competing with God’s truth for our lives. In “Dare to Desire,” John Eldredge sums this up well when he says, “God must take away the heaven we create, or it will become our hell. If you don’t think you’re secretly trying to fulfill your desires like any other addict, then prove it by letting go of the things that provide you with a sense of security, or comfort, or excitement, or relief. You will soon discover the tentacles of attachment deep in your own soul.”
How have you been deceived by the cares of the world? In what do you find security, comfort, excitement, or relief? What are the thorns that threaten to choke the word in your life? Remember, it is easy to let go of the things we don’t own. It is far more difficult to let go of the things that own us. A challenging economy is an opportunity for us to examine our lives and to allow the Master to uproot the thorns of prosperity so that we can get on with producing the crop He desires from the seed He has planted.
Play to win this week in the game that really counts!
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