Through my life I have put emphasis on many different things at various times. It would be the thing to which I was giving my full attention in that season of my life. Some lasted for quite awhile and others would just come and go.
This started when I was a young boy. I wanted to go out for the track team because I thought it would be the greatest thing ever. I looked the part with the nicest uniform on the field but that did not make me a track star. In our first meet I came in last in the 100 yard dash and the boy that came in first had on a pair of cut-off jeans and a t-shirt. Looking good did not bring the results I had hoped for.
After awhile, the glamour wore off but my parents made me finish the season even though it wasn’t what I had expected it to be. I had made it the most important thing in my life and now it wasn’t even fun any longer. The same thing happened to me when I decided to lay my trumpet aside and become the drum major in the marching band. I thought that the drum major’s uniform was the coolest thing and I wanted to wear it. I think I marched as the drum major in one parade before returning to my trumpet.
I could go on and on with the things I thought would be the most exciting and fulfilling experiences in my life that turned out to be an illusion. The things that lasted seemed to be the things that I would go back to after thinking that I had found something better. I never once thought to ask myself why I wanted these things. They were just desires that I had at that moment. There are certain things in all of our lives that have to be first or our life is out of order and contentment is never found. The things we have given our life to fall apart and we go on looking for another thing that we think will fill the empty void that is in us.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33; “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
The issue is that we are trying to put our life in order from the outside in. We have to seek God first and not the worldly things we are looking too for our happiness. Anything we can’t take with us when we pass from this life is worldly; it stays behind. There are many enjoyable things that we can and should do. But these things are only enjoyable if they are in the proper place in our life and we are not expecting them to define us. Work on the inside; ‘first things first.”
These are the truths that we address at the Gathering Place every Wednesday evening at 7 and Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30. You are invited to join in.
