Things

Things of this world, are passing away...

That's the resounding anthem of the slightly cheesy 90's hip hop song "Things of This World" by dcTalk. The song's point is about how much we value the stupid (and important) things in life so much more than we should. It's way too easy to do. I mean, look at the following questions. How many of them fit in with your recent thoughts or feelings?

I love my friends.

I love my dog.

I love that movie that I watched the other day.

I love being crew chief.

I love the leadership position that I hold in my theater group.

Each of those is important, and in fact, very important. But do you know what? None of those things are gonna matter 200 years from now. I continually value that which will be gone tomorrow.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.¹

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could do a blog post on those verses alone. But let's quickly break it down to its bare bones and examine what I think to be the three main points:

• Store treasures in heaven
• Time kills that which is important today

Do not place crazy amounts of value on this today. It's here now, but almost certainly, it will pass. Friends leave. Dog's die. Movies get terrible sequels. Positions and jobs fade with age.

When we do kingdom work, we get kingdom results.

If we do stuff for the glory of God(And I mean really. If you say "This is for God" and you come on stage embracing the cheers and laughter then you are lying to yourself and to God) then the results will last a long time. Goodwill lasts so long, and though it cannot be measured on a whole, the individuals affected by it will remember it forever. That is how you store treasures in heave.

Time flies when you are existing

You know how that works. Everyone says "You've got time" when in reality, time flies by so fast. Do not say: "I'll do that tomorrow, tomorrow I'll really love them", because they may not have a tomorrow. You may not have a tomorrow. Embrace the day and live it to its fullest, and do things in your life that bring glory to God, because those are the things that will stand the test of time.

Love completely

God gave us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to love—yes, it is cheesy. So love, and love without holding back. Things will fade. Spend time wisely. Remember the big picture, and acknowledge that that sometimes doesn't line up with our little pictures, and that's fine.

God knows what he's doing, but we don't. We can choose to look at life and say, wow, this sucks, or we can choose to have a positive attitude. I think that if we loved more and complained less, our lives would be much better.

And finally, remember to put your hopes, dreams, and treasures in Christ's hands. If we are tightly holding these things, how can we hold his hand also?

1: Matthew 6:19-21 (New King James Version)