Mark 10:23-31
There is the story of the man who obeyed all the commandments which I wrote about just last week. The man was shocked that he was being asked to give away everything he owned. This passage is quite similar. Wealth seems to bring a sense of complacency, that everything is fine.
When I went to the Dominican Republic for the first time, I was shocked. The lives of the people in the mountains near the Haitian border is far below anything we would perceive as poverty. Little if no running water, extremely unreliable electrical supply and most homes had none. The homes themselves were little more than 4 walls, openings for 'windows' (no glass) and dirt floors. If you were lucky enough to live in Hondo Valle there was a transmitting station and a food cooperative. People grew coffee beans and dried them on their front porches (cement slabs) next to the passing dirt road. There was no complacency here. Life was tenuous. But, and there is always a but, life was good, the people were happy and deeply faithful. This is what I had come to witness. It is astounding.
I recall when my children were young, I probably had no right to even have children with what I was making for a living, money was scarce. Food and life was hand to mouth. I always collected discarded soda cans to redeem for additional money. A big pot of chili was cheap and lasted a week. Lucky enough to have a job with insurance, co-pays threw the budget into a tailspin.
Now money is not as scarce. In my life I have run the roller coaster of poverty, good money, high debt and recovery. It has taken me almost a whole life to 'get' this passage. I still am not sure if I will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven but I believe I will. I certainly try. I am certainly not complacent about the money that I have earned. By the grace of God I have good health and good love, good family and friends.
What was that last part? Good love, good family, good friends. These are the things that make life a joy and by which we earn ( if we can 'earn' ) our way into heaven. If we focus on these, especially that part about love, and be much less interested in the physical wealth, we have a great head start.
I often speak of honest self assessment and hard decisions. It's taken me almost a lifetime to learn as much (or as little) as I do. What thoughts and decisions will you be able to make? How do you assess your own life, your own love? How rich are you?
When I went to the Dominican Republic for the first time, I was shocked. The lives of the people in the mountains near the Haitian border is far below anything we would perceive as poverty. Little if no running water, extremely unreliable electrical supply and most homes had none. The homes themselves were little more than 4 walls, openings for 'windows' (no glass) and dirt floors. If you were lucky enough to live in Hondo Valle there was a transmitting station and a food cooperative. People grew coffee beans and dried them on their front porches (cement slabs) next to the passing dirt road. There was no complacency here. Life was tenuous. But, and there is always a but, life was good, the people were happy and deeply faithful. This is what I had come to witness. It is astounding.
I recall when my children were young, I probably had no right to even have children with what I was making for a living, money was scarce. Food and life was hand to mouth. I always collected discarded soda cans to redeem for additional money. A big pot of chili was cheap and lasted a week. Lucky enough to have a job with insurance, co-pays threw the budget into a tailspin.
Now money is not as scarce. In my life I have run the roller coaster of poverty, good money, high debt and recovery. It has taken me almost a whole life to 'get' this passage. I still am not sure if I will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven but I believe I will. I certainly try. I am certainly not complacent about the money that I have earned. By the grace of God I have good health and good love, good family and friends.
What was that last part? Good love, good family, good friends. These are the things that make life a joy and by which we earn ( if we can 'earn' ) our way into heaven. If we focus on these, especially that part about love, and be much less interested in the physical wealth, we have a great head start.
I often speak of honest self assessment and hard decisions. It's taken me almost a lifetime to learn as much (or as little) as I do. What thoughts and decisions will you be able to make? How do you assess your own life, your own love? How rich are you?
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’
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