You’ve all been watching the news…
?
What’s up? What’s going on out there? Why should we be so surprised that money – and as some would say, America – has failed us? Money is not God, and America is not God… so why’ve we put so much faith in these two things? We cannot serve God and money. We cannot serve God and America. We cannot have two masters.
There’s an important distinction to make here – we can offer our services to God and to the people of any country, but we cannot serve a country.
But really, I’ve started to wonder a bit… are money and country really just ideas more than they are tangible nouns? Are we freaking out about things that are figments of our collective imagination? Sure we’ve set up institutions and budgets and governments to make sure these ideas stay firmly in place, and those things are real. I can hold money in my hand, and if I spend too much – well, I run out. Likewise, if I go too far South, I’ll be in a place called Mexico – and without making the proper arrangements for my little getaway, I may get thrown in a very real place called jail. So yes, it’s a fact that we have money and we have country.
But I think we invented them. And I don’t believe they came from the purest of intentions, either.
Who out there also believes our borders are artificial? Can I get an amen?
Isolating ourselves from each other is not in line with God’s dream. If you fly in a space shuttle up into the orbit of our beautiful earth, you won’t see all kinds of multicolored lines on our land separating counties, cities, states, provinces, and countries like you do in our atlas. Just vast expanses of rolling green and brown terrain, and deep blue ocean.
And money doesn’t do you much good when no one owns land… because what can we really “own” anyway? Who does it all belong to?
Just food for thought.
Grace and Peace. -jc
2 responses so far ↓
Lyn Collier // October 13, 2008 at 5:07 pm |
Hey, Jake! I remember years ago we had a young couple come stay with us for a few days–Travis Harvey and his wife–don’t know if you remember Travis. Anyway, they had their two little girls with them. At one point, the girls were fighting over a toy or candy or something, screaming, “It’s mine!! It’s mine!!” Travis handled it so beautifully. He spoke very softly and asked, “Is it really yours? Whose is it really?” Obvioulsy, the girls had heard the question before b/c each one answered, “It’s Jesus’s.” And he said, “That’s right. Everything belongs to Jesus, and He loves us enough to share His things with us. And since He is sharing His things with us, we need to be willing to share His things with each other, right?” That is SOOOOOO right, isn’t it? I meant to incorporate that little nugget into my parenting, but I don’t think I ever used that one with you guys. Anyway, Who does it all belong to? Everything belongs to Jesus, and He loves us enough to share.
I love you, sweet boy!!
Lauren // December 17, 2008 at 2:50 am |
SUPER rad post!
I don’t think it could have been said any better.